The CONVERGENCE Book 2: Tangled Fates
by ConvergenceShatteredDimensions
Summary: A ragtag group of heroes drawn from across creation find themselves in a patchwork world governed by an evil warlord known as The Entity. Predictably, conflict emerged. Now, they must escape The Entity's fortress and his captains and figure out what his plan really is.
1. The Story So Far

**The Story So Far**

_For years the Entity has lived in darkness on the edge of creation, stealing fragments of more complete realities for its own world, Nexus. It has waited patiently, but now its desire to possess grows too strong and it readies to expand its dominion indefinitely._

_At least, until recently. You see, a disparate gang of heroes has recently found itself stuck in Nexus by various means. Some, like the powerful wizard Astro, the heroic power-couple David and Destiny, and the Herobrine-slayer Tyron Dragoknight were actively abducted by the Entity from their various worlds as curiosities and potential chess-pieces. Yet others, such as the young, Herobrine-supporting General, Kay Mandy, or the Herobrine-slaying Steve Brine and Jennifer, interfered in the Entity's plans, and found themselves facing a far larger conspiracy than they'd ever imagined. Yet others, like the Farlands-dwelling sheep farmer, Fristad; the quarter-demon wizard and taco enthusiast, Warnado; and Fire, inhabitant of a Minecraft-based world created with technology ahead of its time, have found themselves in Nexus by random chance and happenstance, or perhaps some greater destiny._

_Initially, rather turned around and confused, our those heroes not immediately captured accepted the Entity's hospitality and negotiated with it. But then they discovered the horrendous acts of kidnap and torture and murder the Entity has been conducting across the many worlds. The tipping point came when Kay discovered that Astro, a dear friend of his, was being held in wretched conditions by the Entity. This developed into a full escape attempt and then into an out-and-out battle. After surviving being trapped in an arena and an explosive confrontation with The Ender, the Entity's top captain, the new group of allies at last seem to have reached a lull and might be able to escape with their lives._

* * *

**Character Sheet:**

**The Team:**

_Fire_: A man of two worlds. Fire, whose real name is Peter, is a human being from an alternative earth. Patron of an brain-computer interfacing program, he spends most of his time retreating into a Minecraft-like world to escape from his traumatic past. In the game-world, where time is slower than our own, he has spent the equivalent of 5,000 years as one the immortal Mencur-Besh, fighting and questing and growing stronger and stronger. Standing at a huge three metres tall, covered in black scales, possessing three hearts and being able to extend foot-long claws, Fire is one of the most physical powerful members of the party. He arrived in Nexus after consuming an experimental potion and accidentally being drawn into Nexus. After arriving he encountered Kay and Warnado and the three became an effective trio in the negotiations at the Tower. He departed the Tower shortly before the escape attempt began and has been able to return to his world. Now, having reequipped himself, he is ready to return to Nexus and discover the truth of what is going on, alongside his sister, the powerful mage, Shadow.

From "Slaves of the Desert Mine", by SuperFire131

_Fristad: _A rather unremarkable young adult who, until recently, had the luxury of a life of stable mediocrity, working on an animal farm with his enderman half-blood farming partner. That is... until he encountered a mysterious sentient book with unknown intentions, which would quickly become a large part of his existence. Due to sheer coincidence, Fristad's struggle with the book would eventually lead him through a portal to a Nexus, where he met Steve and Jennifer, and later the rest of the group of travellers misplaced from their former worlds. Now, the book has manipulated him into creating a modified set of diamond armour which can transform him into an enderman, under the promise it will give him the strength to protect his newfound friends.

From "The Book of Dreams", by Asanetargoss

_Kay:_ Kay Mandy has led an eventful five-and-twenty years. Banished at least three times and sentenced to death an embarrassing number of times in his life he has moved from kingdom to kingdom and briefly flitted in and out of public life as a profoundly controversial figure. Most recently, he distinguished himself as "Herobrine's Lap Dog" during the Great Onslaught, playing a key role in the Defence of Zine Craft - where Notch ascended to godhood, the traitorous Israphel was exposed and Herobrine was finally reconciled with the House of Persson. However, in the aftermath of the conflict he has renounced politics, and wishes simply to find a place where he and his friends can settle down. Now, separated from his friends in another dimension and faced with the prospect of another epic quest he's rather miffed about the whole thing. However, he nonetheless is growing increasingly protective of his new companions, particularly the young Warnado.

From "The Tale of Gaia Before Gaia", by astro_joe

_Astro_: Astro is just ready to pack it in at this point. Having lived through the rebellion of the Court of Righteous Protest and still recovering from Kay's untimely death, he was ready to devote his life to patrolling the Fields of Acrisius, collecting the frozen bodies of the survivors. However, an old enemy recommended him to the Entity as a powerful magic-user to study and he found himself captured. Now, all that defined his world has dispersed. Kay is alive and not crazy and discussing whether . There are thousands of other worlds. New systems of magic and creatures he had never conceived of are presenting themselves to him as if they always existed. He finds himself suspended between joy at this new start and profoundly saddened by the past he has been torn away from.

From "Fall and a Rise: A Vanillacraft Tale", by kmandy

_Warnado:_ As a taco-loving, part-demon, thirteen-year-old wizard, it's safe to say Warnado is the wildcard of the group. He is energetic, tricksy and inexplicably powerful. Problem is, he doesn't know how to use it. What's worse is that he know he is one of the "heroes of the prophecy" who will rise up and defeat Herobrine. As such, he feels he should _probably_ get home soon and find out who the other prophecy-kids are. That being said, this interdimensional escapade has brought him into contact with several fellow magic-users of different kinds, and he rather hopes he can use this as an opportunity to learn from them and git gud.

From "Minecraft Origins", by TurtleMaster217

_Amanda_: While Warnado was wandering around, he found himself protecting a small human village and even developed a small relationship with another girl his age, this was Amanda. Sadly, bandits attacked the village, massacred most of the population of the village and sold those they captured into slavery. All this contributed to Warnado's extreme surprise when he found Amanda in a small town in Nexus, having totally forgotten her past and in the possession of a mysterious and powerful-looking energy crystal. Amanda decided to join the party after this, eager to figure out who she was. For someone who was running a cheese stand in a market she is surprisingly adept with a crossbow, making her a valuable addition to the team dynamic.

From "Minecraft Origins", by TurtleMaster217

_Steve __and Jennifer_: Having defeated Herobrine, the Ender Dragon, the Wither and a huge army of undead creatures, Steve Brine and Jennifer are no strangers to adventure and war. However, after Herobrine was defeated and transformed back into Steve's dad they expected their lives to calm down. Aside from Steve's brother Ozen experimenting too much with his cooking, they didn't expect to have much hardship to deal with at all to be honest. As such, they were exceptionally frustrated when a servant of the Entity burst into their lives, tried to steal some mysterious crystals from them, and then warped them into another world with no obvious way back. As such, they were reluctant to go into negotiations and eagerly joined the fight when it started. However, that's not to say they like the other members of the newly-founded group...

From "The Herobrine Chronicles", by Nomolos1

_Tyron_: the hero of Minecraftia. He has faced all odds. He killed Herobrine and then for a victory lap stopped the genocidal enderman leader known as The First. Armed with his sentient sword, Kir, and a powerful magic-wielder, he thought he could take anyone. He was wrong. In the course of an attempt to rescue a boy lost in a mine he was captured and psychologically tortured for several weeks by Freak, a phantom in the Entity's employ. Understandably, he is now deeply concerned about The Entity's activities and is ready to write a strongly worded letter and SHOVE IT DOWN THAT NOTCH-DAMNED TRANSLUCENT PSYCHO'S THROAT! It hasn't been all bad though. He's made fast friends with Astro, Destiny and David in their shared captivity and is optimistic about working in a group again.

From "Cubic Fire", by DragonTyron

_David & Destiny_: David and Destiny are a power-couple if ever there was one. After waking up with total amnesia in a forest, they have spent the last few months surviving massacre after massacre and saving each saving the other's life on multiple occasions. They fought through the Eternal Mine, defeated Herobrine's apprentice, Martin, and confessed their love for each other. In this time they became totally in-sync. David's substantial skill with a blade is complimented perfectly by her offensive magic. No sooner could they breath a sigh of relief than they were approached by the ghosts of their ancestors/past selves and directed toward a mysterious portal which had appeared in their world. Reluctantly, they entered the portal, knowing a great evil lurked beyond that they must defeat. Immediately upon their arrival they were ambushed and captured by the soldiers of Glibby the Ape, one of the Entity's most powerful captains. Now, they are as fully committed to their cause as they are fiercely protective of each other.

From "The Legion Chronicles: The Eternal Mine", by TheLoneAssassino

**The Tower:**

_The Entity_: Little is known of this being. It created the Nexus and the Tower, indicating it is a being of immense power. On account of a tightly-fitted suit of bronze armour, it has few obvious weakpoints aside from a pair of white, fabric gloves it wears instead of gauntlets. Without its armour, it appears to be composed of grey TV static in a deeply unstable but vaguely humanoid form. All that is clear is that it will kill and murder and steal anything that gets in the way of its esoteric motivations. It appears to spend its time in The Tower, overseeing the business of dimensional transactions and the coordination of troops.

_The Ender_: An enderwoman who is the main commander of the Entity's forces. She wears obsidian armour and carries a purple sword that crackles with energy. Acutely observant, she maintains an alliance of convenience with The Entity, in the hope of advancing her people's ambitions. She is currently responsable for suppressing the prison breakout.

_Freak_: The phantom who kidnapped Tyron. He appears human, aside from talon-like fingers but light passes through him. He also has the strange ability to only appear visible to one person at a time, though he can appear before multiple people if he chooses. He has a love of mindgames and is perhaps the cruellest of The Entity's officers. The Entity accordingly allows him the most freedom to roam as he wishes. He has no known troops under him and could be just about anywhere he wishes.

_Glibby The Ape_: A relatively recent addition at The Tower. Kay and Astro know him as a serial killer who looks like a gorilla, but in Nexus he is one of the Entity's more powerful captains. Covering his huge hands with metal gauntlets, he is formidable alone and even Fire would struggle to walk off even a glancing blow from him. Worse still, he leads the Grey Ones, an elite group of enderman and human mercenaries who streak themselves with grey paint. He has been sent here by the crime-lord known as The Silhouette to defend his interests, under strict instructions to maintain a good relationship with The Entity. So far, he has done well in this respect, helping in the initial capture of David and Destiny and then in suppressing their initial escape attempt. However, due to defections from her own forces, The Ender deeply distrusts him.

_Marinus Bul_: The Entity's attorney. A smooth negotiator with a cruel streak a mile wide. He has access to The Entity's files on each of the heroes and knows most of their emotional weak-points. It is unclear how he came into The Entity's employ or why. He really hates Freak. Just so much. He makes things so difficult.

_The Dog_: An officer in The Ender's forces. He has the head of a dog and the body of a man. He is notably polite and wears a monocle.

_Silver_: Glibby's second-in-command. He is one of the three original Grey Ones, endermen under the Ender's command who were trapped in Kay's world for over ten years. Glibby looked after he and his brothers during that decade, giving them assassin work and protection. In return, Silver reveres Glibby. Silver has also been plotting revenge on Kay ever since, and unsuccessfully attempted to kill him during the prison-break by trapping him and several others in an arena full of deadly monsters. He and his brothers were the Endermen who initially kidnapped Astro.

**Others:**

Steve (as well?): A strange figure who appears to be able to teleport. He has contacted Kay on multiple occasions, warning him against The Silhouette. He also appeared to Astro, David, Destiny and Tyron before their ill-fated escape attempt.

From "A Tale Known by Only One" by Bruvvy.

The Lady of Dreams: A benevolent phantom who occasionally visits Peter/Fire in his dreams with the goals of helping him come to terms with his traumatic past. However, since she followed him into Nexus she has seemed increasingly distressed.

* * *

**Author's Note**

Hi! Kmandy here! Welcome to Book 2 of the Convergence. Just before we begin I wanted to explain that this is a collaborative effort primarily between myself, SuperFire131 and Asanetargoss, using characters from our stories "Fall and a Rise: A Vanillacraft Tale", "Slaves of the Desert Mine" and "The Book of Dreams" respectively. However, as you may have guessed from the character list, this has been a much larger process featuring work from 10 authors, but most of them have sadly had to drop out due to commitments over the course of Book 1. I'd just like to take the opportunity here to thank everyone who has been involved in the project up to this point. Working with all of you and talking about the writing process has been an absolute blast. As such, I'd like to give a huge thanks to:

Turtlemaster217

Astro_joe

Nomolos1

TheLoneAssassino

DragonTyron

and Bruvvy

Now, before you begin, I recommend reading Book 1, which can be found on my profile or on MCForums if you prefer that means. However, hopefully, I've explained most things in this wee taster page.

With that, I hope you enjoy this latest segment of THE CONVERGENCE


	2. Chapter 1: Flash Out!

I lost balance as my feet touched the floor of the great hall but in a second I was up on one knee, Apotyre raised and teeth bared fierce as any animal's. The Ender and all her host had been here when we left and I wouldn't let them try that trick with the colosseum again. But they were gone. The hallway was dim. Only friends remained. For the moment.

Exhaustion crashed into me like a wave and I felt the burns on my back and every other wound on my body. I didn't both getting up fully and amused myself with the observation that my enemies all seemed to love throwing me into colosseums and death games. First Vechs via Vareide, now The Entity via his Grey Ones. It sure was a hell of a coincidence- Oh wait! The Grey Ones must have read up on me, probably thought they were being clever or something. A just revenge after "eleven years" stuck in my world. Ha! They could have done much worse than that!

Conceptually, I mean. The colosseum was genuinely horrifying. I'd wondered we would make it out of that one. The back of my obsidian chestplate still felt hot where the fireball had caught me, and the skin screeched beneath, as if a million suns had scorched my back. Or, was it where I'd caught the fireball? The pain was messing with me and I could no longer remember if that was a deliberate choice or whether I'd tried to flee and been struck down. Then I remembered who I'd been guarding.

_"__Astro!"_

It felt like my ribs were reaching inward to grab at my heart and wrap their arms about it and make sure it was safe, like a mother guarding her young. My eyes leapt about the room to find the other survivors of the colosseum and our comrades who had been left here. Aside from Astro, I hadn't known anyone there longer than a week.

It was hard to tell where everyone was. The room was dim and hot. Scorch-marks lined the floor and some walls and the air was still warm. Smoke had discoloured the ceiling. There had been an explosion.

My heart was released a little after I found the wizard at my foot. I'd started this breakout to free him. If he'd died… what would I tell Aaron and the others? Then again, I didn't know this was the same Astro waiting for me on the border of the Vanilla Craft. We'd only been together for an hour but he seemed older, more cynical and he looked at me as if he knew something horrible that I didn't.

Steve and Jennifer, the Herobrine-killers, were already up and about, scouting for the enemy. Steve, sword drawn, purple eyes sharp. Jennifer, red-haired and bow ready. Their armour was cracked from the fight - Steve was now barefoot - but they would fight until the last. I thought it was strange that, aside from the cracks, nothing had marked them. They were pristine when they should be caked with blood and soot and sand.

They marched up to join Amanda. Since we'd been teleported away, she had taken up a perch atop a statue of a strange, contorted creature with countless limbs, and who scanned the hallway with scowling eyes. Her crossbow sat in her hands, like an attack dog on a leash.

And of course, Fristad, my _saviour_. He kept grabbing at the purple-glassed goggles, making they were on tight. He offered me a hand to get to my feet, acting very concerned, but I didn't buy it. He was hiding something. Anyone who transforms into an Endling at random is not to be trusted. Endlings aren't to be trusted. Period. I didn't take his hand, struggled up on my own.

On my feet at last, I turned to find the rest of our group. A pleasant sight did not greet me.

Tyron, the gigantic green furball was acting all jittery and grumbling to himself, probably addressing Kir, his sword. That wasn't a crazy thing. The sword was sentient - something from their world called "Bluestone". The only abnormal thing about this was that he was talking aloud. I heard him mention "Freak" and became wary. He could appear at any moment. I also felt a pang of pity. This creature was another Herobrine-killer, said to be a great hero, and now he was ready to stab shadows in the hope of gaining revenge on his torturer.

But there was a more pressing issue. David lay sideways against a castle wall, the floor in front of him blackened as if he had been propelled by a blast. The arm which once wielded his gauntlet was now a mangled stump hanging over his blood-covered abdomen. Destiny stood crouched beside him, holding a hand comfortingly to his cheek. Her ponytail had been cut loose, and the ends of her brown hair were singed, embers grow at the far end.

"Notch, what happened to him?" asked Fristad.

"His gauntlet exploded," said Warnado, whose arm was wrapped around Amanda. It was hard to tell beneath the darkness of his hood, but his eyes seemed to widen in awe and confusion. "It fired the biggest deadly green ball of lightning I've ever seen. It was amazing but I can't actually believe we're all still alive."

"It only killed some of the endermen," warned Destiny in heartbroken monotone. "The rest teleported away. More will come."

"All the more reason to get the heck out of here as soon as possible," said Fristad. "Carry him over here and we'll teleport out of this place."

Tyron offered to carry the fallen David. I tried to carry Astro but my burns made it pointless. Fristad and Steve ended up doing it. I sincerely wished Fire was there. The absolute size of that one! He could've carried both of them. At least an Ending wouldn't have been carrying my friend. But he was nowhere to be seen.

Then, our newly united group converged on Fristad and vanished into a dimensional rift.

When they appeared in another space, they were in the familiar room of crowded and stacked furniture. Fristad stumbled, as if dizzy.

"I'm sorry, guys," Fristad groaned between labored breaths. "This is as far as I can go. The strain of teleporting so many people is becoming too much for me."

"It's alright, Fristad," Steve reassured him. "I recognize this place. The exit to the tower isn't far from here."

Our motley gang of the battle-weary, the disarmed, and the gravely injured walked as fast as it could. Considering we had two limp bodies in tow, we made good time.

After several hallways and another two flights of stairs, a large, red carpeted entryway and a double door would have been all that stood between us and freedom… if we had have been alone.

Instead, a half dozen armed guards stood along the edges of the carpet, pulling their swords from their sheaths and bows from their backs as they turned to face the attempting escapees.

Then, Warnado reached into his hood and tossed a cylindrical metallic object without warning and screamed, "FLASH OUT!"

Then, a white flash and explosion blinded and deafened almost everybody including half of the escapees. Luckily, the other half of the escapees were not blinded and also none of them were deaf, allowing them to slowly make their way to the exit while the guards groaned with their eyes shut and hands pressed against their ears.

The double door was pushed open, and finally the crew breathed the sweet and pure night forest air.

"Thanks for that, Warnado," I said. "If it weren't for that metal canister of yours, we'd probably all be dead." I paused in thought. "Say, can you get more of those? Seems like they'd be quite useful to have around."

Warnado didn't answer and instead asked: "By the way, do any of you know what 'FLASH OUT!' actually means? Because I don't."

I rolled my eyes and took that as a "maybe, but I prefer you not knowing". I laughed a little. He was a weird kid, but I liked his style.

"We should get going," said Jennifer. "The sooner we get as far away as possible from the Tower, the sooner we can treat Astro and David's wounds. And the sooner we can all meet up with Fire in the village alive."

Jennifer stopped for a moment to stop David's bleeding with some extra leather she had on hand, then she scouted ahead into the shadows of the forest. The rest followed behind, always careful not to leave more tracks than they had to. Traveling at night was perilous business, with the skeletons eyeing for easy targets and creepers potentially lurking around every corner. Luckily, Amanda and Destiny still had ammo to spare, and the rest were in good enough shape to fight the occasional monster. The group took turns carrying the fallen Astro and David.

Nighttime turned to dawn, Fristad transformed into a human again, and the group came to stop at a place where the tower was long gone from sight, and forest obscured the horizon all around them, leaving no sense of direction except the leaf-screened sun above.

"We don't have nighttime cover anymore," reasoned Jennifer. "This is probably the best time to set up camp underground."

"Did you just say, 'underground'?" Kay asked with confusion.

"Yes. We are going to build an eleven meter by eleven meter underground living space a few meters beneath the dirt," explained Jennifer.

"We don't have time for that nonsense!" Kay said. "We have two injured men in desperate need of treatment, and any hour now the Entity's henchmen could come looking for us!"

"Don't you realize we've thought that through?" Steve snapped. "It'll take us a few minutes to build the shelter. I don't know what block physics and inventory size are like in your world, but they certainly don't apply here."

"Okay…" Kay snuck a suspicious glance at the now-human Fristad, before glaring back at Steve. "My apologies if I'm skeptical. I do forget we're all from different worlds."

Fristad's brows clenched in confusion, as he racked his brain for what he could have possibly have done to make Kay angry at him. Steve simply flashed a look of contempt at Kay for a moment before pulling a full-sized diamond shovel from his pocket and proceeding to jump into the dirt-floored staircase that Jennifer had just dug up.

A mere minutes later, Steve walked out of the staircase and beckoned the group inside. The pairs carrying Astro and David, and the rest following behind, walked single-file, first down a dirt staircase, then into a stone hallway, and finally into a barren, torchlit square room with stone and dirt walls.

"I'm going to seal the entrance with pistons," announced Steve. "When I'm done, the staircase should be able to merge with the grass above with the flip of a lever. Need any medical supplies, Jen?"

"I should have enough," she said, "but I think someone else should use them. We need to mine more resources."

"Agreed," replied Steve. "Any volunteers?"

"I can help dress the wounds," offered Fristad.

"Your kind shouldn't be anywhere near a body," snarled Kay, wincing from his burns.

"What is your problem, Kay?" Fristad turned to face Kay, visibly angry for the first time. "If you have something to say to me, then just say it!"

"I would simply prefer that the wounds be dressed by someone else," said Kay. "And I am more than willing to do it myself."

"You don't trust me," concluded Fristad, regaining his composure. "You're worried I'll hurt you and… your friend. I get it." Fristad turned to face Destiny, who stared listlessly at the injured David. "Do you want my help?"

Destiny nodded silently.

Jennifer placed chests with supplies, crafting tables, furnaces, and beds throughout the room. She then dug the first stone steps of a downward stairwell in the side of the underground room.

Warnado followed behind her and watched expectantly. "You're digging a tunnel down into a potentially large and dangerous cave system? Sounds like fun! Mind if I join you?" Without waiting for a response, Warnado conjured a ghostly pickaxe. Amanda soon followed behind.

"I'll stay here," Tyron offered.

"Sounds like a good idea," said Steve, as he pulled down the lever on his finished redstone contraption. In a chorus of hydraulic chugs and scratching stone, the grass staircase lifted and became a wall of pistons, blocking off the light from above.

Steve reached into his magically deep pocket and pulled out a square metal object the size of his hand with a rod sticking out of it. He handed it to Tyron.

"This radio will allow you to communicate with Jennifer and I," said Steve. "All you have to do is press this button and talk into it. Keep us informed. Do you have a clock?"

"No."

Steve rummaged his pocket again, pulled out a clock, and placed the clock in Tyron's remaining large fuzzy palm. "We'll be back before noon."


	3. Chapter 2: The Return

It was a bit after midnight when Peter sat back down at his computer, he had spent the last fifteen minutes eating and drinking, he couldn't afford to take longer, time on the server passed a lot more quickly than in the real world. He didn't even want to speculate on how long it had been in Nexus. Longer? Shorter?

After a deep breath Peter laid his hands down, one on the keyboard and one on the mouse. As he clicked the server's address a numb feeling crawled up his fingers, quickly spread through his arms and finally reached his head. Peter's eyes closed.

A second later Fire's eyes opened, they were not green like their counterparts in the real world, they were entirely red and emitted a faint light. These eyes were framed by black, shimmering scales. Not everything was completely different though, Fire's short hair resembled that of Peter, the only difference being that it was completely white. While Peter was by no means short, Fire was still taller by half.

Fire shook his head, transitioning between the real world and the server had always been a transformation, from Peter to Fire, from human to Mencur-Besh. Though as he thought more on it, with what he had seen in the last days he wasn't so sure how real or how imaginary each of his worlds really were.

Fire's sister Shadow had been waiting for him on the server. She looked different from Fire yet at the same time they shared some patterns. For example Shadow too had red eyes and black skin, though hers was still the human variety as opposed to Fire's scales. Her hair was white as well, but very long. She also was very short compared to Fire, and, to be fair, compared to a lot of people in the real world.

"Ready to pack the bags?" she asked.

Fire nodded.

In reality 'packing the bags' was a gross understatement for what the two did in the next two days, they turned their storage rooms inside out in search for the most spacious enchanted bags they had. They packed thousands of building blocks of many varieties, though also copious quantities of food, this time not limited to dried and salted meat since they could magically preserve what they took with them.

Fire also got to work on emptying tanks of potions into flasks and brewing new potions where he had nothing stored. The potions were large in variety, basic potions like healing or speed were there in large quantities but he also took more exotic things like contact narcotics, you never knew. Fire also crafted and enchanted several Ender Eyes, he had something special in mind with those.

On the day of their departure they picked out their weapons, Fire's armory offered no small choice. The halberd he had obtained in Nexus would remain in his base, while it definitely was a fine piece of smithing, it couldn't compare to his own best weapons.

At the very back of his armory was a display case that housed exactly one weapon of each type, the exception being daggers, which came in a set of two. The weapons on display here were no ordinary steel weapons either, they were made entirely from diamond. While their crystalline nature made them beautiful in its own right, the weapons were otherwise plain and without decorations, above everything else they were functional. On the server making diamond weapons was no easy task, it took years for them to crystallize and without the right technique they would be worthless. The weapons he had here were mastercrafted; he had had a hand in their creation himself. Not just the weapons themselves were of the highest quality but also their enchantments. They didn't need further magical sharpening, they could split rocks easily on their own, though when looking more closely at the blue crystal a faint dark red glow was visible. A black flame lived inside those weapons that would latch onto anything cut and burn out its life force; akin to a deadlier and more persistent Fire Aspect enchantment.

Fire opened the display case slowly. "Didn't think I would ever use those. But with the stakes being what they are I'd say we're all-in here."

He took a sword, a mace, two daggers and finally a halberd. Shadow didn't need much in the way of weapons, she was an ascended mage. She wordlessly took the last object in the case, a smooth red-golden ball of metal. As her fingers touched it it seemingly liquefied and slithered up Shadow's hand, then manifested again as an arm band.

The armor Fire chose was made of a dark metal, called firesteel. It was a combination of high quality steel, obsidian and blaze powder that needed to be woven in specialized forges. The resulting armor was light, flexible and highly protective.

As they were leaving Shadow also took several pieces of enchanted jewelry, those were intended to serve as large reservoirs of life force she could use to cast spells.

The bags they had packed on the day before were now bundled to a backpack that Fire put on over his armor. Some of the bags were also in their inventories, since Fire had confirmed those would work in Nexus as well.

The two siblings walked down the stone corridor side by side, they said nothing until they reached the elevator that would take them out of the base.

Fire double checked his bags and inventory. "So, we have everything?"

Shadow said: "We should."

They stepped onto the elevator and slowly started rising upwards. Once they reached the top, they stepped out of the tiny wooden hut that disguised the entrance to the base, Fire in a crouched position.

Shadow said: "I can take us directly to the first tunnel, a two-person teleport is manageable. It was near Drysprings, right?"

Fire gave her thumbs up.

Shadow took a deep breath and concentrated, white glowing runes appeared on her skin while she gathered up the life force for her spell. Those runes were one part of what made her an ascended mage. A few moments later Fire felt a violent jolt, suddenly they weren't standing in the jungle anymore, they now were only a few steps away from the tunnel.

Fire routinely checked if everything was still where it belonged, both in the sense of luggage and body parts. Shadow was a very capable mage, but you could never be too sure with teleports. After coming to the conclusion that everything indeed was where it was supposed to be he moved towards the tunnel.

Shadow asked: "This is where it is?"

Fire answered: "Yes, you might be able to feel a slight energy flow. Just give it a bit more power and it'll open."

After a short flare-up of Shadow's runes, the dimensional rift was made clearly visible, she had much more power at her disposal than Fire had when he was world hopping.

"Hold on, let me try something…" Fire muttered.

He took one of the Ender Eyes he had enchanted from a bag and carefully moved it towards the top of the tunnel, it started slowly floating into it and then disappeared.

"We'll see if it worked when we're on the other side."

Fire went first, Shadow followed right after. They emerged at a familiar place, to Fire at least. They were in the middle of a plains biome, exactly where Fire had entered the tunnel when he was on his way home. So the tunnels were consistent, at least this one was. He also noticed, very much to his satisfaction, that he was still connected to the Mencur-Besh's mental network. It had worked, the Ender Eye he placed in the tunnel got stuck between the worlds and was now acting as a transmitter. He would now have to place an Eye in each tunnel all the way to Nexus. That way he could still be connected to his own world to see if anything changed there. That and in an absolute emergency he would be able to call for help.

Shadow looked around. "So there really is more out there…"

Fire nodded. "You can imagine what I felt like when I discovered that Nexus was not the work of the admins."

They started walking, there was still quite a journey ahead of them.


	4. Chapter 3: Licking Wounds

"Stay still, Kay," insisted Tyron, applying some bandages to his back.

"You're squeezing half the air out of my chest!" Kay muttered. "Lighten your grip a little…"

"Sorry, is that better?"

"Yes, now can we please get this over with and tend to Astro's wounds?"

"Please stop yelling," said Fristad.

Fristad and Destiny were both preoccupied physically and emotionally. Destiny was more visibly reserved, staring sadly as she brushed a wet cloth across David's gaping wounds. Fristad, meanwhile, seemed to be in pain, perhaps even afraid, despite having no emotional connection to the stranger he tended to, and despite having no wounds from the deadly escape attempt.

In time, the wounds of the incapacitated David and Astro were cleaned and dressed. Destiny held her hand on David's good shoulder. His face was unusually pale.

"I can only speak for myself, but I think the overnight journey from the tower has taken its toll on us," said Fristad. "There's no point in us all staying awake at once. We have a long journey ahead of us tonight."

"I agree," said Tyron. "Personally, I could use some food right about now. Assuming there's enough to go around..."

"Knowing what I know now about Steve and Jennifer, I wouldn't be surprised if we had lots," said Fristad.

Tyron opened the chests one by one. "You guessed correctly."

Tyron pulled out four large steaks from the chests. They were passed around between the four of the awake comrades and they began to take bites out of it, Tyron simply chomping away with his razor-like teeth. Kay and Fristad shared a startled look before Kay's brow furrowed confrontationally again.

Fristad and Destiny ate the meat calmly, but Kay was tentative, surveying the group with a mixture of sadness and suspicion. At least in part this was due to the lack of obvious cutlery. However, after three false starts he did begin to chew away like the rest. He was startled; it was damn good stuff.

"Wow," He laughed. "This is so much better than what I'm used to! I'll have to compliment them when they come back."

"You must have low standards," remarked Fristad, surprised.

Kay seemed to forget who he was talking to for a moment: "I won't deny that. Last thing I really ate was something Fire prepared that must've had a cliff-face worth of salt in it. Aside from that I usually eat _his_ cooking, and that's possibly worse." He gestured to the sleeping Astro, who rolled over as if on queue.

Fristad chuckled at this. "Well then, we'll have to fix that!"

Kay smiled ruefully, evidently remembering his prejudices somewhat. "We shall, once these guys are safe."

"Agreed," said Fristad.

Once he finished his steak, Fristad's expression suddenly turned sour. "I… really need to get some sleep. Who's staying up?"

"I will," said Tyron.

"I'll stay awake a while," Kay agreed, looking around for his armour and the other pieces of clothing he'd taken off in the process. "I'm burned but I've been long dead if I can't fight in this condition. I'll give you some company for the first leg at least."

Fristad looked toward Destiny, with a look of sadness and sincerity in his eyes. "I think you should sleep too. Emotions take their toll. More than we like to admit."

She nodded, face empty and eyelids drooping. She stood up and walked over to David, to whom she, cat-like, curled up. A few moments later she was asleep.

Fristad walked slowly towards the beds on the other side of the room, seemingly reluctant to sleep in spite of his tiredness. As he slid under one of the red covers, he lay with his eyes open for a while, before closing his eyes with a sigh.


	5. Chapter 4: Tarnished Hall

The hall was tarnished, littered with bodies and dust. It wouldn't be like this for long so The Ender decided she had better take it all in while it was still there. It was that damned General according to one of their officers, the dog-faced one. He had gone as far as Astro's cell and then overpowered his escorts. They didn't know whether that was his intent the whole time or whether it was a split-second decision. Either way, they'd released a goodly chunk of the prisoners, who had in turn released more prisoners, who had in turn caused havoc throughout the Tower.

Her arm throbbed slightly. She looked down and saw singed scales and was reminded of David's little trick with the gauntlet. Killed several of her best soldiers. They would not be easily replaced. She could hardly go back to the homeworld, cap in hand, and ask the other generals to reinforce her. She was walking on thin ice with them. They were still intent on conquering the Nether back home and didn't see the startling range of possibilities out here, in the speckled, shifting mass of creation. They had defeated the humans and the other lesser beings. The Overworld was theirs. Going to the Nether was an old pipe-dream of a grudge and pursuing it would yield no profit.

The Entity had arrived and she had seen two paths. Her people could go and conquer all creation, or they could spend the next thirty years baiting pigmen into traps, clearing out castles and melting away into nothingness.

She knew her path was the one who would truly please the Ancestors…

"Need a potion?" Freak asked, drawing up beside her and waving a pink vial.

The Ender smiled and took it and grunted as her wounded scales reshaped and became bright and new.

"Thanks."

They turned around and began to wander toward the huge, open door, which seemed to droop outwards as though ashamed. They'd blinded the guards and walked right through. It was an embarrassment.

Freak spoke first as they walked onward: "The Ape is just about done clearing out the East wing. A few rogue Testificates found their way into the armory, but they should be dealt with. Bul will probably be with us any second now, shrieking wildly no doubt-"

At that moment a man shrieked wildly: "What was that?!"

He looked flustered, his suit all crumpled and covered in dust and blood. This was Marinus Bul, the Entity's steward and/or legal representative. He had been responsible for the negotiation. They should have just taken the Eye and the Crystals.

"The General betrayed us," The Ender answered flatly. "We'll deal with them soon enough."

She hadn't received word from Silver. The Grey Ones had demanded they be allowed to deal with Kay Mandy personally and they proved impotent. She was ashamed they had once been her own soldiers. Age had broken them. Now she would have to deal with that group herself.

Bul didn't seem to know what to do with himself. For once, absolutely no words seemed even in the vicinity of his tongue.

"Looks like our master's troops are back," sighed Freak. He pointed to a long black line marching along the horizon.

"Good, it'll be more lucid."

She grabbed the arms of Freak and Bul and teleported up to The Entity's chambers.

Sure enough, there it was. Bronze-coated and red-eyed, the Entity sat in its throne. She had tried to gain its attention earlier, but it was spread thin in a raid on World 32. It had manifested five times in that battle and there were several other manifestations Night-knows-where. This was as close to a prime meridian as the Entity had. Was this the first body it took? Who had it been before its influence? Maybe this was someone it had once cherished. Maybe there was no body in there and this was its most pure and undiluted form beneath the armour. The Ender didn't care.

She cleared her throat. Its head lifted and stared right at her.

A voice stripped of emotion and which echoed no matter what volume it spoke at sounded: "Yes?"

"General Mandy's part has departed. They have severely reduced the prison population. In particular, he took his friend and his former cellmates, leaving us deprived of-"

"It doesn't matter."

"But I thought we were-"

"The raid on World 32 was a success. The Wizard's college is under our control."

"Oh," The Ender nodded, a realisation creeping through her until: "So, you decided to go ahead with that plan."

"Yes. In spite of your objections."

"And you-"

"We now have procured 527 new magic-users. I estimate 487 will survive the march home. Maybe 500 exactly if you adequately prepare at the primary work-site."

It began to pick at the ends of its white gloves, starting to edge them slightly closer to coming off. It never fidgeted, so this was a calculated and deliberate threat. Its red-glass eyes bore through her and though she'd never seen it show any emotion beyond interest or apathy, she was certain it was furious with her now. As close to fury as this constantly swirling husk was capable. The incoming light of dawn seemed to shake with fury on every part of it. The rubified eyes, the bronze seam. All seemed caught up in the restrained blaze. The Ender struggled not to quake before it, then it twitched and she felt herself released from its gravity.

"Yes, sir," The Ender bowed her head. "I'll be right on it."

"Excellent. After that, you are to immediately set about relocating the General and his fellow escapees. Freak, Bul,-stay. Discussions… are necess-ary."

Bul shot her a snide, cruel look as she left. Freak furrowed his brows and became interested in the floor, but otherwise showed no opinion.

She left the room quicker than intended. She teleported away as though an arrow had been fired at her, and even as she walked away and began to bark orders in Endish tongues, she could hear the twang of bowstrings, and the whistle of wind through feathers.

She had to prove her worth, fast.


	6. Chapter 5: Simply Distractions

I feel an intense, dry heat. Each breeze seems to burn my skin as it passes by. I open my eyes and am greeted with a great contrast of light and dark. To one side, cavernous cliffs of red stone cast shadow upon sharp rock piles. To the other side is a great, flat sea of shining, churning magma.

I have a strong conviction in my mind that this is the Nether I know from books. Yet, somehow, I feel as if I have been here many times before. There is a sense of solitude here, as if the rocks beneath my feet belong to me. And yet, I feel a growing fear building within me. And it's not the monsters.

Perhaps the magicians put me in another one of their experiments, to force me into a dangerous situation. Perhaps a situation which forces the Book to take control…

I look around me. The cliffs are so barren and red. There is nothing resembling life except the occasionally two-legged porcine corpse.

I feel a wall with my hands for a sturdy grip, hoping for a way out somewhere beyond it. But then, my arms twitch in surprise, tearing loose rock, as a familiar voice echoes just behind my head.

"There is no need to do that."

I turn around as fast as I can, and see the figure which I recognize as a manifestation of the Book. In spite of all the negative feelings I felt when I heard that voice, the moment I see the figure, I feel relieved.

I smirk knowingly. "It's good to see you again."

"Is it?" the figure replies with glee. "I was hoping you would say that."

The figure conjures a dagger and puts it in my palm.

"Ever since you crafted the enderman armor, I feel like we have established a special bond, one which transcends speech. I want you to prove it to me."

A cow appears before me. A sudden fear grows within me, begging me to stop, but nevertheless I plunge the dagger into its neck. The creature howls and turns to white smoke before I can process the motions, the memories so fleeting I feel as if I have done this hundreds of times before. The habit of obedience. The habit of trust. I hate it.

"Why did you kill the cow, Fristad?" says the Book, testing my motives.

"Because I thought that's what you wanted me to do."

"Do you understand what that implies?"

"It means I will do anything for you, even things you don't tell me to do," I say, "Do I really have to say it? Why must you put me through this? I've already endured so much suffering just to prove my loyalty to you. If you have any mercy at all, then please, don't make me kill people as senselessly as you made me kill that cow!"

"Do not worry, Fristad," says the Book. "If I really wanted you to kill people, I would forbid you from feeling remorse. However, there is something I wish to forbid. From now on, you are forbidden from protesting my desires. Do you have any objections, Fristad?"

Suddenly, I feel as if a piece of myself is torn from me and shoved into a bubble. The bubble seems to buzz with anger and fear, screaming repeatedly "no" and "resist" and "wake up." But in spite of the strong feelings this bubble feels, I can no longer act upon them. I can only respond to the Book with silence.

"Of course you cannot act upon those feelings. As much as you may still feel attached to those feelings, Fristad, you must understand that they do not matter. They are simply distractions!"

My fellow escapees from the tower appear in a circle around me, from the armored Steve and Jennifer, to the wary girl, to the mage which Kay considers a friend. All stand before me, awake yet still, as if stuck in a stupor. I fear for their safety, yet can only stand and watch.

"One of the people who stands before you will become under your control: a friend to you and I, just as we are to each other. You get to choose which one… but not now."

The people vanish.

"I will wait until tomorrow evening before requesting your decision. If you do not state a person, or for any reason protest or resist the decision, you will be forced to endure pain and terror far beyond anything you have experienced before."

I feel a hint of happiness and excitement from the Book, as if it looks forward to punishing my disobedience.

Then, the figure and fiery world around me vanish. I am still, suspended in darkness.

"You are no longer forbidden from protesting my desires. The consequences are yours."


	7. Chapter 6: Peacetime Has Ruined Me

The light of the torches was dim but constant, scarcely flickering so much as waving. It was strange to me; too perfect and too impenetrable. My eyes were heavy and my back ached badly as I fumbled with the straps of my breastplate.

"By Jeb," I whispered to the green man, Tyron. "My back is gone. Sorry about snapping at you back there, it really bloody hurts." I bent over chuckling in agony and he seemed to smile.

"What happened to you that messed your back up so much?"

"Two large fireballs were thrown at me. I knocked one away and had to block the other one… with my back."

"Ouch," Tyron winced.

"In hindsight, I probably should have just dodged it but that wasn't nearly heroic enough."

Tyron laughed.

"Nah, I get you," he nodded. "I did some crazy things in my time as well. I'll have to tell you about them some day."

"Why not now?"

His face went very serious a moment. "I've got to find out if they meant anything."

I remembered a phrase being touted recently. It was coined by some journalist when describing the Thaumic crisis, saying it was like being "kicked in the soul". Tyron had just reminded me of that kick, and how harsh it had been, and who the kicker had been.

"I understand," I gave up on fiddling with my breastplate, set it aside and placed a hand amidst the fur on his arm.

The silence was long, but there was a comprehension in it, an understanding.

"So, what's with our little sword-friend?" I hoarsely muttered. "He's been awful quiet."

_"__Hello!"_ It chirped. _"Kir! Kay: new friend?"_

I laughed loudly at the shock of it but then covered my mouth. David shifted his fevered brow slightly but didn't wake.

"Friendly little thing isn't he?" I beamed. In my head I accepted its offer of friendship. The colours within my mind lit up and my mood with them. It was pleased.

"Yes, he's a vein of bluestone. It's a sentient rock. Don't know what I'd do without him. We've been through it all - the dragons, Herobrine, the First and now this."

I nodded.

"And what about you?" Tyron asked, the slant of his eyes taking on a more friendly angle. "You and Astro?"

I deliberated, thinking back over it all. If I could tell Warnado and if I could tell Fire, I could tell him.

"I won't say we go way back, but it feels that way. Met him about four years ago now in Zine Craft - wealthy Craft in the Old Continent. He helped me out after I got into legal trouble, helped me build an airship…" I felt myself even then getting lost in the nostalgia but pressed on. "Then - it's complicated. My house was blown up, I was arrested for treason and then I ended up working for…"

I looked him in the eyes and was terrified at what the reaction would be. "Listen, I know this is not viewed as a good thing to do in interdimensional circles but I assure you, it is fine where I come from. At least, it is _now_. It should have been before too but it's complicated."

"Oh come on," Tyron waved a hand. "I'm sure it's not that bad."

I felt my cheeks going red and realised the thickness of his claws.

"Well, I don't think it is. I've just mentioned it and at least two people I've met so far have been rather appalled when I mentioned it-"

"Is it embarrassing?"

"No."

"You didn't become an exotic dancer or something?"

"What, no!"

He laughed voicelessly at my indignation. Kir seemed to find it hilarious.

"Then what is it?"

I breathed deeply. "I became a general of Herobrine in a war against Notch."

Silence.

_"__Not good,"_ Kir seemed agape at this.

"Thats - fine," Tyron stared off into the distance, teeth gritted.

"I know he does genocidal things across other worlds but this one is different. I swear. We didn't even want to go to war. Israphel started it-"

I kept trying to project images of what happened to Kir, but I did it way too fast and the response was _"Slow, slow!"_ I was panicking a little so I just kept going. Jeez, what happened to my nerves? I needed to get back in command of something.

Peacetime was ruining me. Hah! "Peacetime".

"Okay, seriously, slow down. Kir's trying to relay it to me, and I can only keep up so well."

"Sorry". I slowed my mind apologetically.

A long pause as Tyron's face contorted as if he were sucking something close to a million lemons. Then, at last, speech.

"I have no clue what you're trying to communicate. All I can piece together is that this Herobrine seems totally different to the one I killed. That's enough for me. Different strokes for different worlds I guess. It's cool."

"Oh thank Jeb," I laughed, no longer caring too much about those sleeping. "I was terrified for a second. Now, if you'll excuse me, I really need to fall asleep now. I am dying. It's a pleasure to meet you though."

"And you too," Tyron shook his head, looking as if I were the most singularly strange thing he'd ever seen. Excellent, I was winning ground back from Fire and Warnado in the aggressive quirkiness department.

I saluted and collapsed back onto a bed on the other side of the room, only half-aware of having walked to it. And I settled into my usual slate of strange and unsettling dreams.


	8. Chapter 7: In Transit

They walked through the different worlds quickly, only stopping to eat, drink or to place Ender Eyes in tunnels. The only other stop they made was in the world where Fire… Claw had killed the hunters since they wanted to inspect the scene once again. The blood was still on the ground but the bodies were gone, so was the satchel of diamonds Fire had left there.

They finally arrived in the small, distorted clearing in Nexus. It was in the middle of the night when they came out of the tunnel. Fire could still feel his connection to the network, weak and full of static, but it was still there. They quickly left the forest and went to the road, from there to the town. Before his departure Fire had made sure that his room would remain reserved for some time. They arrived at the tavern without further problems, after greeting the owners, Fire and Shadow went upstairs. Fire laid down on his mattress and Shadow magically projected one for herself.

The next morning Fire checked a small apparatus he had built, a bit of redstone hooked up to a clock. According to the redstone charge, significantly less time had passed in Nexus than Fire had spent on his journey. He had assumed something like this but this was the confirmation, time passes differently between worlds.

Shadow woke up, stretched and yawned. She asked: "So, we're supposed to look for somebody, right?"

Fire answered: "I overheard some talk about a prophet and his congregation being near here. They also talked about his guard called Steve. Now, with everything being Minecraft based around here, Steve should be a fairly common name, I even ran into one in the Tower. I do remember Kay talking about a Steve as well, who may or may not be the same Steve as this prophet's guard. Anyways, we go out and find them, we'll probably meet someone who has a bit more insight into the situation at hand."

Shadow got up and yawned again. "Good plan. Now excuse me while I finish waking up. Haven't actually slept in a few months."


	9. Chapter 8: Far Away Now

Kay, Amanda, and Warnado reluctantly woke up that evening, as the whole group prepared for a full night's journey through the forest. Even Astro was finally awake, and able to stand with assistance. Kay was glad to have him back.

The same could not be said for David, who still needed to be carried by the others. Destiny grew increasingly restless as the night went on. She squeezed David's hand, telling him that everything would be alright.

Another night turned to dawn and the group made camp underground once more. Tyron and Jennifer carried David into the room and set him down on a bed which Steve had placed, to try to make him more comfortable.

"He's not looking very good," said Jennifer, "or sounding very good, either. He's barely breathing."

"He's strong…" Destiny insisted. "I know he is. He'll overcome this, just like he always does!"

"We can't just stand around and do nothing!" said Tyron.

Astro raised his hand from where he sat. "I can help him."

Kay turned toward Astro with a look of disbelief. "Not in that condition!"

"He's far worse off than me. I can't just sit here and watch him die. Help me up, Kay."

Destiny's sad eyes stared softly at David's closed lids.

Astro approached slowly, his arm over Kay's shoulder. He bent over the bed, rested an arm on the sheets, and placed his hand on David's chest. He closed his eyes and his brows furrowed in concentration.

Suddenly, David gasped, and his eyes opened.

"David!" said Destiny, a tear falling from her eye as she smiled.

"You're alive," David said, eyes watering in happiness. His voice was whispy and faint, as if the words themselves had run some distance and were about to collapse. "The gauntlet…"

"It's gone," said Destiny, eager. "The endermen, too. They're far away now. We're safe."

"That's wonderful. I can't wait to… I'm so…"

David's voice trailed off and his eyes closed.

Astro winced in pain. Kay grabbed him before he could collapse onto the bed.

"There's no time!" insisted Tyron. "Is there anyone else that can help him? Warnado? Fristad?"

Warnado stood frozen in place, staring at David.

Fristad shook his head in sadness.

"Warnado?"

Warnado broke eye contact. "I can't."

Destiny continued to stand by David's bedside as the others, at a loss of what else to do, finished building the underground bunker and planned out their shifts. As many of the others went to sleep, Destiny stayed awake.

She whispered to David, still smiling faintly, recounting all the times they shared together:

"Do you remember that time we were running by those bluffs… I pushed you off and grabbed you, and we were flying over the ocean? Or maybe that one time we were fighting alongside each other… they stabbed me in the back, and I was trampled. The others assumed I was dead… but you didn't, and you fought through them and pulled me out? Or the cave?"

"We've always been there for each other" she said, "and I'm still here for you."

Doubt flashed through Destiny's mind as she wondered if David could hear her. His face looked strangely still. Destiny pressed her fingers against David's neck, and then burst into tears.

An hour later, as Destiny's tears went dry, it became clear that David was gone forever. Kay walked up to Destiny and put a hand on her shoulder, consoling her.

The whole group ascended to the surface, where they helped carry the body some distance from the shelter. Steve dug a hole with an iron shovel, but it was far too big. Tyron and Fristad ended up digging it in the pouring rain which burned orange in the light of the declining sun.

Steve looked about himself sadly, then went off and fashioned a tombstone from a sign. This only lasted a few seconds, and the others were still digging, so Steve stood uncomfortably beneath the shelter of a tree. Kay was stood beside him, still too wounded to be of much help in the digging. Astro was propped against the tree, barely conscious, bleared eyes floating about Destiny.

"What was his full name?" Steve asked after a long silence, spinning the sign by its handle.

"I don't know," Astro sighed without looking at him. "That's strange... He told me quite a bit about himself back at the Tower. Didn't mention his second name."

"No clues?" Steve pressed, eyes pained.

"He said he was reincarnated from a guy called Carter," shrugged Kay.

"David Carter? Sounds about right."

"I didn't say that was his name."

"Then why tell me that?"

"I don't know. I was thinking perhaps they had the same last name."

"Okay. What was his last name?"

Kay looked at Steve earnestly: "You'll have to ask her."

He nodded at Destiny, who stood staring at the growing grave. The rain was pelting down on her.

For a second Steve thought of calling out to her and asking, but he couldn't conceive a way of saying it. He would always come across too casual or falsely interested. _Hi! What's the surname of your dead lover?_

"David it is."

Jennifer and Amanda came back with a large bundle of flowers, and wordlessly handed it to Destiny.

Warnado was sat in the branches of another tree, staring down at David's body.

As Destiny watched the body of David be set into the grave and the dirt be filled on top of it, Destiny couldn't help but feel as if the man she loved was being buried alive, and felt like she should stop them. But she didn't want to be a burden to anyone.

Her lover's death felt so sudden… so senseless. Destiny hated the endermen for taking him away. She hated the tower. She hated this dimension.

The soil above David was smoothed out, and the grass replaced. Destiny walked up to the patch of grass whose seams were barely visible, and scattered the flowers atop it like flour or like dust.


	10. Chapter 9: Shelter

When evening came again those who remained resumed their journey.

As the moon shone high above them, the trees thinned out, and the grass became long and crackled under their feet. The shadows of scattered buildings against the starry sky could just barely be seen at the edge of the horizon, along with a faint orange glow. As the shadows of the buildings rose, the group began to step over rows of crops and pass by sleeping cows and horses.

They then stepped onto cobbled roads, passed the first dimly torchlit buildings, and scouted out an inn.

One building in particular looked promising. It was three stories tall, and the first story windows and half-open door shone with a welcoming light.

Kay stepped into the entryway and looked around. In front was a short staircase with steep steps. To the left was a door, locked. To the right was a dining area, mostly empty. A few cups and plates were left on the tables, and a couple benches were knocked on their sides. In a far dark corner of the room, four shadowy humanoid creatures with glowing red eyes sat around a table playing poker.

Kay beckoned for Tyron to follow him as he walked toward the shadowy group. As they got closer, they could see that the creatures wore dark clothes which matched the color of their skin.

"Excuse me," said Kay, "would any of you know where I could find the innkeeper?"

"He's asleep," replied one of the creatures, "but you can talk to the guy in the kitchen." The creature pointed to the doorway opposite the front windows.

"Much obliged."

Kay and Tyron entered the kitchen, where a man stood at a table, reading a book as a pot simmered over a fire.

The man at the table turned around. A brief flash of annoyance went across his face before he composed himself. "You here for lodging? For food? Or…?"

"Nine - eight of us are just looking for a place to stay the night," said Kay.

"You have money?"

Kay looked to Tyron, as if suddenly realising the absence of a loyal friend.

"I'll go get Warnado. He has some," said Tyron.

Tyron left the kitchen, and a moment later Warnado entered.

Warnado reached into his pocket and squinted in concentration. The kitchen man reached his hand out expectantly, only to have his hand covered in raspberry jam, with the glint of gold coins beneath the sugary slime. The man's eyes widened in a mixture of disgust and surprise.

"Don't worry, it's just raspberry jam," said Warnado.

"Um…" the man replied. "I think this is enough. Hold on a minute."

The man rid himself of the jam as best he could with a rag, then left the room. He returned with a handful of keys, which he placed in Kay's hand.

"Your rooms are on the third floor, nearest to the end of the hall. You can stay until noon, then you have to pay up again. But please…" the man added with a groan, "use clean coins next time."

Warnado nodded absentmindedly.

The group walked up the stairs. Tyron and Steve struggled the most to keep their feet on top of the narrow steps. There was a curved pattern wallpaper on the walls in relatively good condition, and the banister's carved design was intact and varnished. But the wooden steps creaked like they were a century old, and it was doubtful that they could sustain the weight of so many people for long.

As the doors to the bedrooms were unlocked, each of the travelers eagerly crawled into the beds and drifted quickly into nighttime sleep… except for Destiny, who lay awake, brooding David's death.


	11. Chapter 10: The Nameless

When I closed my eyes in the tavern and rolled over into peaceful sleep, I did not expect to see so soon after. It wasn't that I woke up - it was as if my eyes had never closed. Instead I had simply changed the scene I was looking at.

I was in the cave I had slept in several days before, when I had been among friends. It was nighttime. Beyond the ledge there was only fog.

I ruminated on this place of safety I was parted from. Before fate had ensnared me in another adventure. But now I had not even the rewards of earlier quests. No friends. No money. Not even a title that was worth a damn.

I felt very tired, older than my years and rather feeble urge to cry.

Then, I realised I was not alone. I turned, elated. But it was not Him. I should have expected that. Herobrine has made silence a habit.

Instead there was a radiant woman clad in white. Grey eyes. Pale skin. Slender as well. Quite attractive. If I didn't know better, I wouldn't have thought she were real.

She spoke:

"You must be Kay." A warm smile smouldered on her face. Her voice was faintly ethereal. "It's about time we talked."

"Yes I am," I answered warily. "Who are you?"

"Sorry," she responded, the smile not fading. "Rude of me, especially when you desperately wanted to see someone else. I am the Lady of Dreams."

She paused. I got the impression this was supposed to be reassuring if not impressive.

"I'm still waiting on a name." I cracked an impatient smile to hurry her on.

"I've no name but my title." Still that smile. It was genuinely affectionate, but I couldn't help but feel uncomfortable. "My kind don't have names."

"Yes," I cocked my head. Was she trying to withhold information? "And let me guess: are you here to contact me in my dreams to encourage me along on my quest? Possibly dictate to me what that quest is? Perhaps you aided one of my comrades in a previous quest. Actually, you don't work for the other Steve, do you?"

She seemed confused.

At first I felt presumptuous, but then felt my mind being searched. I could have stopped her quite easily but I left that information open. It was better hold onto that card for the ideal moment.

"No," she said, seemingly unaware that I'd detected her efforts. "I don't know him personally, but our goals are perhaps similar."

"Then, you should know I was reluctant to help him."

I felt the searching again. Again. I didn't try to stop her. She was hurrying. Something had placed her under pressure and she was in a rush to converse with me, possibly with someone after.

"Yes, I assumed."

"So, have you enough information to convince me, or do you need to read my mind again?"

"Yes." The smile was gone. A more grave and worried air took over. "Thank you, I was wondering if you'd say something. Sorry about such a rudimentary method; I'm in a hurry."

"I can imagine."

She breathed deeply before beginning: "I won't pretend to know the situation; I'm not from here. I just sensed a troubled soul who might do with someone to talk to. It's my job. I don't know what's happening in this strange little world. I'm not sure I want to know. I do want to know what happened to you." She smiled sincerely and reached out a hand. "I've helped a lot of people this way; let me help you too."

I was rather tempted in that moment.

"I'll think about it," I said.

"Is it really that difficult to trust me?" she laughed.

I sat down on a rock and laughed too. I thought about it as I did so, looking at the spring. I tried toying with the speed of the flowing water - something small she might not notice. It slowed to a crawl. Good. I was at least part-way in control here.

"Well, is it?"

I looked up from the spring.

"Yeah, actually," I said unapologetically, letting my accent slip into Thaumic brogue.

With that I expelled her from my mind. It was as though she slammed through the cave wall and shattered the world like glass. I felt myself slip between the cracks and into empty spaces that nightmares flowed through readily. Hamish's split face, the Endling hordes before Zine's walls, the cold I'd felt after I took a bullet for Him in Arcadia, the ashes of all my homes and more were in prominence.

But most of all, I was cast back to the last moments of the battle for Zine Craft. Not Notch's death. Not Jeb containing Israphel. Instead, I remember how Israphel used the Eye to open the End and shatter half the city. As dragons burned the sky and the screams of thousands rose through the smoke, I fell through the cracks between worlds. I floated in that silent realm and I stared into the searing dark and in it I felt a power, a presence, older than Herobrine or Notch or Israphel. Older than the bones of the world. It reached out towards me, to take me and consume me.

That night I couldn't evade that blackness, or the horror lurking within.

And this dread lasted every second of that night. Each moment felt like a lifetime, and I believed I'd be an old man by the time I awoke, sweat on my brow and my breathing leaden.


	12. Chapter 11: Leads

As they walked the streets they got even more strange looks than Fire had gotten when he was traveling alone. It was understandable though, the people were used to humanoid creatures with vastly different looks. Abnormal humans like Shadow were still a rarity, although some of the looks were definitely not ones of distrust or aversion, the opposite was the case. Shadow turned to Fire and smirked, confirming his observations.

At random they approached a woman. Fire asked: "I have heard rumors about a prophet, do you happen to know where he is?"

The woman was a bit surprised by being asked something like this by someone like Fire but then she answered: "Yes, he preaches on a tall hill to the east of here, I've been there a couple of times myself. Most of what he says is nonsense but occasionally there are things he foresees that actually happen how he said, if you interpret them a bit more loosely."

Fire thanked her and then continued moving.

Shadow asked: "Where exactly is 'east' in Nexus?"

Fire pointed. "That way. The cardinal directions are based off the Tower's four main wings. They become more useless the further you move away from it since less and less people know about them. I think I have actually seen that hill on the map the Ender showed me, it should be a few hours away from here, assuming we would travel at normal human speed, I think we'll get there a bit faster."

"Let's go there then."

They took the quickest way out of the masses of the town they could find, then turned east. A lot of the way would be plains but the hill itself was surrounded by a dark oak forest. Fire could tell that Shadow was quite excited about the entire situation, he would be too if he hadn't been at the negotiations personally. The Entity's presence alone was imposing, it clearly was nothing to be easily messed with. He was worried about the implications of what he had found out so far about the Entity's expansion plans. He'd have to find out more sooner or later, the prophet was a first step in that direction.


	13. Chapter 12: Grand Revelations

I feel aware of my surroundings, but my eyes are closed. There is an unplaceable chorus of chattering voices playing in one of my ears, quiet enough that I could easily ignore it and go back to sleep.

Part of me wishes that I could. But a larger part of me recognizes I have a role to play, that we're all trying to figure out how to get back to our own worlds. And I'm certainly no use to anyone if I'm just laying around in bed!

I sit up and open my eyes, then flinch away at the unexpected blinding light of the window.

Then, I remember with dread another role I have to play… a promise to the Book I must fulfill. I don't know the girl's name. I wish I never find out, but I know that once it's all over, I will know a lot more about this girl than just her name.

I feel a comforting feeling… and a brief moment of happiness. For a moment, it numbs the sensation of dread.

"It will be easier if you don't resist me so much," the Book insists, with benevolence that nearly feels genuine.

But I resist it, drawing from seemingly emotionless memories of morality. Then the dread returns.

I slide my legs off the bed and shove aside the faded quilt blanket. Now, where the heck are those voices coming from?

A made bed, a sealed door, and two flights of stairs later, and it seems the source of the commotion was just the inn's dining area. I quickly recognize Kay and Tyron chatting at one of the tables, with Steve, Jennifer, and the others sitting there too. Jeez, I must have overslept!

I sit at the empty end of their bench and find myself sitting across from the quirky magical boy who calls himself Warnado. That's a hard name to forget. But the girl I dread to see is sitting right next to him. I try not to think about that.

"Would you like some soup?" Warnado asks. "It's on me"

"Sure, Warnado."

Warnado stands up and walks away. Dreading the idea of engaging in conversation with the girl I'm supposedly about to enslave, I turn toward the rest of the table and see Kay's friend sitting next to me, turned away, in what appears to be a very engaging conversation with Kay and Tyron. Seeing no good way of entering their conversation, and knowing how strange it would look to stand up from the table and find other company, I decide that the only reasonable way to counter the Book's sole presence is to talk with the girl herself.

"You never did tell me your name," I remark to the girl.

"Amanda," she says, "and I actually don't know your name either."

"Fristad Heltz," I tell her, "from Veridale of the Farlands. I'm an animal farmer." I decide to talk longer, to stall until Warnado comes back. "I have a farming partner named Jonas. He's an enderman halfblood, believe it or not. And my best friend. Aside from that, I've had a pretty ordinary life. Perhaps too ordinary, for some." I motion to the motley group sitting with us. "Although I guess there are some aspects of my world that aren't so ordinary to people from other worlds. Even something as simple as the food I eat. It seems people from other worlds have fundamentally different ways of cooking!"

Warnado returns and places a bowl of soup and a spoon in front of me. The smell is unusual, but still makes my mouth water.

"Thank you, Warnado," I tell him, before immediately diving my spoon into the soup, only to spit the first spoonful out as I realize it's very, very hot.

Amanda bursts out laughing.

"See?" I tell her, pointing at the soup, "like that!"

"Is there something wrong with the soup?" Warnado asks.

"Depends. Is it normal in this world for soup to be this hot?"

"...Probably?"

"We have to go, Fristad," someone says to me. I look up, and it's Jennifer.

"What do you mean?" I ask.

"Everyone's leaving the inn because of someone called 'The Prophet.' It seems important. It might tell us something important about this world."

I resist the urge to sigh, and stand up from the bench, momentarily glancing at the unfinished soup before following the others out of the inn.

"The Prophet speaks again!" someone proclaims ahead, just audible through the din of an excited village crowd. "An era of darkness is upon us!"

I look at Jennifer with confusion, and she responds with a sympathetic nod.

Steve walks up to her. "It's not far from here," he tells her. "I think we should visit this prophet, and see what he's all about."

"I agree," says Jennifer.

"Warnado's found a carriage that can take us."

We maneuver through the crowd to a carriage at the edge of town, one of many. As carriages load up and depart, some people run toward the moving carriages and climb onto them, while many others travel on foot.

Just ahead of us, Warnado hands the driver of a large carriage a sum of coins, and opens the carriage door.

I climb into the carriage just behind Jennifer. Destiny and Tyron sit across from me. A couple townspeople enter behind Warnado before the door is closed and the town drifts off behind the edges of the carriage windows.

"So… who exactly is this 'Prophet'?" Steve inquires from the townsperson sitting across from him.

The townsperson, a man wearing a thick, coarse-fibered vest, with a goatee in need of trimming, turns his gaze toward Steve. "No one truly knows who the Prophet is or where he came from. All I know is that he speaks the truth, as handed down from the gods of many worlds."

"Gods of many worlds?" the other townsperson replies skeptically. "I don't think I've heard that explanation before."

"How else can it be explained?" the goatee townsman responds rhetorically. "We all come from different worlds, each worshipping our own gods, and now our people and our worlds have been brought together. Surely that must be the will of the gods."

"So _that's_ why there are such abrupt changes in terrain…" Steve responds with realization.

"What about this 'era of darkness' that the Prophet is predicting?" I ask. "Any idea what that's all about?"

"It could be anything," the other townsperson says. "That's why I want to hear more of what he has to say."

"Let's not beat around the bush. An era of darkness is never good news," says the goatee townsman. "The wrath of the gods, certainly, but beyond that I don't know. This combined world is new. There cannot have been enough sins to justify the punishment of the gods. Perhaps this future of darkness is the work of evil gods who have taken control."

I try to make myself more comfortable in my armor, despite the jerking movements of the carriage over bumpy terrain. I really wish there was some way I could take it off.

"Do we know if this era of darkness is connected with the champion?" the other townsperson asks.

"What? The one who will command the forces of life and death?" says the man with the goatee.

"Yes, that one."

The man strokes his goatee and thinks for a moment. "You may be on to something."

"I certainly hope it's the case. If something bad is about to happen to our world, I hope there would be someone who could stop it."

I find the man's theories distinctly unsatisfying. Another hero's prophecy? All predicted by some man that no one knows, who answers to gods engaged in some unknown battle for good and evil? There has to be a more concrete explanation. Gods don't give hints when they want something that badly from mortals. At least… my gods don't.

As the carriage continues onward, Kay engages liberally in conversation with his fellow riders, his mage friend following suit. Every once in a while the mage's eyes lock with mine before he turns away his gaze a moment too soon in discomfort. It seems that whatever feelings Kay has about me have been passed on to his friend. The Book brushes across my mind a sense of intrigue and suspicion toward the mage, feelings that I do not disagree with.

The sound of echoing voices begins to come in through the carriage windows. The voices grow louder until the carriage starts to slow.

Then, the voices suddenly go silent. And in the place of all the voices which went silent, the cry of a single voice is barely audible.

I leave the carriage with the others and find myself at the back of an incredibly large crowd on the side of a rocky hill, with a small but dense forest around it. At the top of the hill stand two people, seemingly the source of the single voice crying out.

I have to focus in order to hear the words of the lone voice, and even then they are not completely audible. One moment, I hear bits and pieces of a story of brothers and sisters engaged in a feud. Another moment, I hear a broken analogy of throwing different sized stones against a wall. Yet later, I hear a story about a creature - what kind exactly I cannot say - laying still at the base of a waterfall. On and on the voice rambles stories, with seemingly no connection between them. There is something almost anxiety-ridden to the voice's pitch, as if at any moment its speaker could collapse dead on the ground. But over time, I develop a hunch, a guess, to the voice's distant and uncertain words. It revolves around a single theme, and that theme is… "sleep."

Not all the stories seemed to be connected to it. As far as I could tell, they were almost all detached moral proverbs. But every once in a while, I would catch a word that stood out of context, which I could not identify at the time. "Rest." "Death." "Sleep." "Dream." And then every once in a while, I would catch pieces of a story that did not seem to have a happy ending. Natural disasters and murder, generally. These stories would usually end abruptly. The voice would then pause for a moment… and then return to the proverbs.

I look toward the furry green man standing next to me, who calls himself Tyron, and give him a look of confusion. I do not want to disturb the crowd of people in front of me by talking over the distant voice, but I hope I can get some assurance that I'm not the only one who hears something dark and disturbing from that voice on top of the hill.

Tyron notices me a moment later and nods toward me, his annoyed face seemingly saying, "Tell me about it."

Eventually my mind starts to drift and lose focus from the distant voice. Why are we all at this hill, anyway? More importantly, why are we all here, people from many different worlds, in the same world? Is this a common occurrence? No, it can't be normal. That wouldn't explain the abrupt changes in terrain that Steve mentioned earlier.

Which leads me back to the same existential questions: Why here? Why now?

Could the Book be somehow connected to all this? No, that can't be the case. Steve and Jennifer seemed surprised when I told them about the Book, and they seem like honest people.

That just leaves that one mysterious criminal stronghold we escaped from, with an unexplained interest in the artifacts possessed by Steve, Kay, and Jennifer… and an unexplained desire to establish contact with other worlds…

If the prophet is right about an era of darkness coming upon us, could it not be the work of the gods at all? Could that criminal organization really be powerful enough to attract the attention of the gods? And the gods brought us all here to fight it? No, that's ridiculous. That would imply that the gods are too weak to handle their problems themselves.

After I disengage myself from my thoughts and listen closely to the words of the distant voice again, the words eventually trail off into silence. The crowd begins to dissipate and echo with indistinct chatter. I follow Tyron and the others back to the carriage, where we encounter a pair of unfamiliar visitors.

One is tall and covered in formidable, sleek black armor from head to toe. The other, about half the size, wears a black robe clinging closely to its form. Long, straight white hair hangs out of its hood. Its skin, just visible beneath the hood, is nearly the same shade of black as its robe, and its eyes glow red. And the creature, despite its size relative to the tall armored one, stands with confidence, with a hardness to its gaze that could almost be perceived as a subtle sense of superiority.

"Can I help you?" Kay asks the two black figures cordially.

"Hello Kay, I wondered when I'd run into you again," says the figure wearing the heavy black armor.

"So soon?" says Kay, "and you aren't immediately threatening to kill me or arrest me? Not that I'm complaining, of course. I'm more than willing to discuss our differences peacefully in spite of what happened at the Tower."

"Oh, you must think I'm one of the endermen from the tower. Sorry about that. This should help you recognize me."

With that, the armored figure lifts the helmet off their head to reveal a white-haired, scaled black face with red eyes. I recognize him as the enderman hybrid who gave me that painful healing potion and sat at the table during the conversation with the tower's crime leaders.

"Fire!" proclaims Kay. "You took your time! Oh who am I kidding? By bloody Notch it's a relief to see you again." He reached over to clap a hand on his shoulder, but could only reach his forearm. "Who's your robe-wearing friend?"

"That's Shadow, she's my sister." He pauses, seemingly remembering something. "I went on a voyage through different worlds back to my own in order to get some supplies, she decided to come along."

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Shadow. I must admit I'm a little jealous you get to come here of your own accord. Enjoying the scenery?"

With a smile Shadow replies: "Oh, the scenery is interesting, if a bit abrupt at times. The ambient magic is also a lot stronger than I'm used to."

"Oh, so you must be a wizard of some kind?"

Fire answers instead of Shadow: "I told you about her before we met Warnado, remember?"

"Of course, I apologize. It is a bit difficult to keep track of everyone given all the interesting characters we've met lately. Which reminds me…" Kay pauses for a moment. "David didn't make it. Wait, I don't believe you've met him. Don't bring it up around Destiny. But yes, to make a long story short, we met a few people in the Tower, and on the way out… things got a bit chaotic. There may still be some unsavory characters searching for us."

"I guess we have some catching up to do," surmises Fire.

"We all do."

With two more members added to our motley group, we each step up into the carriage. Fire looks around intently, evidently intrigued by all the unfamiliar faces.

"That was definitely a thought-provoking speech," the more skeptical villager chimes in.

"I'll say," I tell them. "Subtle references to sleep? Random stories of earthquakes and homicide? All hidden within a cryptic series of religious proverbs? No wonder everyone's crazy about this guy. I really hope he's wrong."

"The Prophet is rarely wrong," insists the speculative villager.

"How can you know that?" asks Steve.

Shadow chimes in: "The longer you listen the more becomes clear, at first you notice words and concepts, with time it's entire sentences that are quite often relevant to someone in the congregation."

"I'm guessing you've met with a good fraction of all the people who came to this congregation and asked them about it?" I question sarcastically.

Again, Shadow smiles. "I have spoken to most people who come here regularly, I have ways of being in more than one place at once. Though, none of them have yet figured out the grand revelation behind the words."

I raise my brows in intrigue and perhaps a bit of fear. "I guess I'll take your word on that."

"You have the grand revelation then?" Kay smiles wistfully.

Shadow replies: "I never said that, I have not spent a great amount of time here after all. It might also be that we're missing some critical pieces of information."

Kay stares at the sun shining partially through the window of the carriage: "We Thaums have a tradition called the Generational Story. Different generations of the same family continue the same story with faint alterations. Genuinely, you reach a major plot point, and it switches generations and the major plot point we just saw is recontextualised. That speech is probably tripe, much like most Generationals, but could we consider the proverbs are all linked in some way? At the very least there must be a common theme or motif?"

Fire explains: "Multiple in fact, you already know about 'sleep', which seems to be the most common one, other ones are 'growth' or 'twilight' for example. The Prophet never repeats anything he says so there will be a point where enough of whatever he knows is revealed to piece everything together."

"Is that so?" I say mildly.

Despite my skepticism, I can't help but notice how Fire and Shadow seem so sure of themselves when they talk about the Prophet, despite being only briefly familiar with his existence. It's as if they know something that I don't, and I want to find out what that is.

"Pardon me for being skeptical," I continue, "but how can you be so certain that the Prophet is telling the truth?"

Shadow says: "Normally we wouldn't be so quick to trust but the Prophet is the only existing source of any information about this world, as far as we can tell there are no natives, at least none that we've met. It also strikes me odd that some of the prophecies do happen as foretold, in a frequency that can't just be random chance."

The speculative villager interjects. "It happened to me once. How did it go exactly? Ah, yes! The Prophet said, 'large will crush small, and the small will shatter like a raining sky.' Just a few days after his fortelling, the very thing happened after I fell a tree. It got stuck perched over a group of shorter trees, and when I freed it, it broke them under its weight and the sky rained with their splinters! If you want I can tell you about a few more that happened to some friends of mine if that wasn't enough."

"One is fine," I reply, feeling somewhat frustrated with it all. Whatever knowledge Fire and Shadow have, they aren't going to share it so easily. But that knowledge isn't enough. We still wouldn't know how we got here, or how to get out. And I'm still stuck with the Book.

Even as I remember it, its presence flashes briefly across my mind, reminding me of my dangerous duty to take control of Amanda. Her face is just one of many riding in the carriage. How long would it take for people to notice?


	14. Chapter 13: Catching Up

The loosely affiliated group of dimensional strangers departed the carriage at the village, slightly larger than before.

"Any idea what we're doing here back at the village?" asked Warnado.

"Well, it only seemed like the logical place to go since there would be other carriages moving through here and villagers who could offer us valuable information," said Fire. "I already know about the geography in this region thanks to my 'information trade' with the Ender, but that knowledge can always be expanded upon. But aside from that, no, there's no reason for us to be at this village specifically."

"We might as well stay here for another night to rest," suggested Steve.

"Agreed."

The group weaved through the crowd and arrived back at the inn, and entered. The dining area was bustling with activity, evidently from the carriage passengers which arrived before them.

"It's pretty crowded in here," Kay noted. "Let's hope the rooms are still available."

"I can make it happen," Warnado assured him.

"Don't waste all your money in one night," Kay warned. "Steve and Jennifer can always just use their superhuman strength to dig a cellar."

"That's probably going to be in violation of multiple zoning laws," said Warnado, as he walked away into the dining hall crowd.

Kay frowned and walked over to Astro to confer with him. "That kid still confuses me sometimes. Any insight on that new girl, Shadow?"

"It's... more the lack of insight," said Astro. "The girl is completely devoid of any magic or life signs. Even a rock has something resembling energy. But this? It's the complete lack of energy. I can't explain it."

"Could it be that Shadow is masking her power somehow?"

"If that's true, she's not doing a good job of concealing that she's doing it."

"Good point," said Kay. "I'll go talk to her, see what she's hiding."

Kay walked over to Shadow. "So, Shadow, have any interesting backstory you want to share?"

"If it's about my lack of life signs, no I am not masking them, they are just not there. It is one of the effects of the ritual that made me an ascended mage."

"Ah, I see you overheard my conversation with my buddy Astro. It's all nonsense to me, but what sort of wizard are you? Clairvoyant, maybe? Airbender? Blew the words over to your ear? Open portals in the world to creepily stare at folks? I've seen my fair share of unusual powers, and if there's one thing I've learned it's that you never can tell what a wizard is capable of. So, which was it then?"

"Where I come from, what I did is called Ender magic. What I just used was a magical ear, nothing more. Reading minds undetected is usually harder. But I also do get that question a lot, so part of it was expectation. I'm not sure if you want to know about my full range of capabilities but they can be described briefly. Before my ascension I mostly did summoning and telekinesis, after it… anything became possible. Anything except for rewriting the laws of reality, that is reserved for gods or local equivalents."

"I see. I'm sure Astro would be fascinated to hear all about it." Kay did his best to conceal his mix of surprise and disappointment. "Sorry to be curt, but I'm just going to report."

Kay walked back toward Astro.

"It seems like Shadow isn't holding anything back," said Kay, "opened up to me about her ascension ritual and everything."

"Ascension ritual?" asked Astro for clarification.

"It's some ritual where she lost the outward appearance of life in return for some very strong magicking powers. Actually, now that I think about it, sounds like something with a lot of negative consequences; maybe I'll ask her about it. She can hear us, by the way…" Kay glanced briefly in Shadow's direction before continuing. "Anyways, she reminds me of Fire in a way. Powerful and knowledgeable. She could be a valuable contributor to our… what are we, exactly? Should our group have a name?"

"It's only been a few days, Kay. It's a bit early for those sorts of things."

"True, although it's never too early for a boost in group morale. Although staying at the inn one more day will probably do us all good, assuming the Entity's henchmen don't barge into our bedrooms in the middle of the night." Kay's eyes darted warily at the door with a look of suspicion that conveyed first-hand experience. Then he turned back to Astro. "Hey, look! Warnado's back!"

"I told you I'd make it happen," said Warnado smugly. "Although, to be fair, it wasn't that hard. I never gave him our old keys back."

Warnado tossed a key each to Kay, Astro, Shadow, and the others.

Kay stored the key away and glanced at the front door of the inn a bit restlessly, before procuring a harmless grin. "I'm going to see what there is to do in this little village. Maybe chat with the locals about current events, find a pub, that sort of thing. Anyone care to join me?"

"I think I'll stay behind and talk with Shadow for a while," Astro said. "There are some questions I want to ask her about her magic."

"Me too," Warnado responded eagerly.

Kay avoided glancing at Destiny and Steve as he worked out in his mind who next to recruit on his little day expedition. "Fire! Tyron! Care to join me on a little village reconnaissance?"

Fire said: "Sure. I did arrive a bit before you but most of the time I was busy brewing a potion or hopping between worlds. Never really explored the village."

"Sounds like a good idea," Tyron agreed.

"Excellent!" said Kay, starting to feel a bit more positive. "Fristad! What about you? Interested in checking out the village with us?"

"I… haven't decided yet," replied Fristad, his voice distant, as if distracted.

"Okay then. Feel free to look for us if you change your mind. We'll probably be in the nearest pub, so ask about that with the locals and you'll come across us," said Kay. He turned toward Fire and Tyron. "Shall we?"

Kay, Fire, and Tyron walked out the door and into the village streets, which were still crowded with people who had arrived from the hill of the prophet, although at least now there was enough room for the three of them to navigate without constantly having to bump into people.

Kay scouted the facades of the nearby buildings and pointed out a building he spotted as they walked around a street corner. The three of them headed toward it.

"So, Fire," summarized Kay, "you've been hopping between dimensions the past couple days, and brought that mage girl Shadow back with you - she's your sister, correct?"

"Right," said Fire.

"Your _real_ sister?" Kay asked, with a gesture toward Tyron that inquired as to whether it was okay to tell him.

"Yes, she is human and in fact my biological sister in my other world," Fire answered bluntly. Tyron looked confused. "I'll explain another time."

"I just wanted clarity. Thanks… And I told you about our somewhat chaotic escape attempt from the tower, and our journey through the forest using Steve and Jennifer's quick assembly underground bunkers?"

"You didn't tell me how it all got started," said Fire.

"I guess I didn't," said Kay. "After our negotiations with the Entity, Warnado and I decided to explore the tower. After passing through some large halls and odd rooms filled with junk, we found ourselves in the tower's prison. That's where we found Astro, Tyron, Destiny and David..." He trailed off. "They were a tad imprisoned."

"The Entity was not as kind to us at first as it was to Kay and the others," said Tyron. "One minute we're in our own respective worlds, the next we're being abducted, taken into the tower and detained in a cell. Later, this guy called Bul somehow knows all the major events of our lives and tries to recruit us into one of their nefarious schemes. When we refuse, they send us back to the room, we fight to escape, but end up beaten and detained in the prison."

Fire said: "Interesting. After I travelled to one of the first worlds beyond Nexus I noticed some deformations in the surroundings. That and what I learned from the Ender lead me to believe that Nexus is absorbing other worlds, or rather has absorbed worlds in the past. For some reason it stopped. Your worlds must have been very close to Nexus, which would explain your surprising transition."

Kay nodded. "We broke them out, of course. In fact, Warnado broke a goodly chunk of the prison to help cover our escape. That's when Warnado and I made ourselves enemies of the Entity, along with Steve, Fristad, and Jennifer, who joined us during the escape. We fought our way first through the usual armored guards, and when it was clear we weren't going to give up easily, the endlings got involved. We just made it out of there alive, thanks to Fristad and Warnado. With the exception of David, as you already know."

At this point, the three of them were standing at the counter at the back of a bustling tavern. Kay spotted a woman with two hands full of empty glasses marching behind the counter and waved to her to get her attention.

"Tyron, you want anything? Fire, any special requests?"

"Not this time, I'll just get whatever you're getting."

"Same," said Tyron.

Kay turned to the woman. "What kind of drinks do you… oh, never mind that! Just get us three of whatever those guys over there are having," Kay said, pointing over to a group of five people at a nearby table who he assumed knew a bit better what they were doing in this dimension.

The woman nodded and left, still holding the empty glasses.

"So, when you said you might still have 'unsavory characters' following you, you meant the Entity's endermen," Fire concluded.

"Unfortunately," Kay responded.

"I just remembered something," said Tyron. "There's one other thing that happened while we were at the tower. Fristad had experiments done on him by a group of wizards using some machines."

"Fristad…" Fire mused. "He wasn't in the Entity's records. Perhaps they did experiments on him to fill the gaps in their knowledge. Do you know what kind of experiments were done on him?"

"He didn't say," said Tyron.

"Notch only knows what it was. Invasive surgeries on house guests sounds like the sort of scheme the Entity would be involved in," Kay noted with disdain. "He and the Silhouette sound like perfect bedfellows. The more I learn about the two of them, the more I dislike them. But as far as I know, they're our best chance of getting back to our own worlds. Aside from Fire, maybe. And that Prophet guy, assuming your Shadow's right and he's not just spreading a bunch of standard mad-wannabe-messiah-preaching-on-a-hill nonsense. Speaking of which, Fire, do you have any new ideas on how we can get back to our worlds?"

"I'm afraid not. The only reason I was able to return to mine was because of the mental connection I have to other Mencur-Besh, I was able to use it as some sort of dimensional compass. Some of your worlds might be close enough to be mapped by the Entity's scouts but I wouldn't consider them safe since you already got taken to Nexus once."

"What do you mean by 'close'?" asked Tyron. "Do the people in your world have some sort of dimensional knowledge, like a map or something?"

"In my world we weren't even aware that other worlds even existed up until I was transported to Nexus, we just have some research on our laws of physics that could be applied to the fact that they do exist. And yes, worlds can be 'close', just with an added dimension. As I said, I have found distortions in the terrain directly next to Nexus, which has lead me to believe that Nexus may have been 'stealing' parts of other worlds at some point."

At this point, three glasses of an unknown, light-colored alcoholic beverage thudded onto the table in front of Kay, Fire, and Tyron. The bartender inquired for payment, and Fire presented a small bar of gold, which seemed to satisfy her.

Kay took a sip of a glass. "Well I certainly am not going to stand around and wait for nothing. The Prophet may be one of many local oddities - might be wise to ask around. Or perhaps there are others with valuable information about the Tower. Actually, the latter is quite promising. Warnado did break that whole prison. It's likely we're the first to arrive in this town, and others will follow."

"You have a point," agreed Fire. "Although, if enough prisoners arrive in this town, it is likely that the Entity's soldiers are not far behind. I won't have to hide because I helped them with one of their issues, all of you though..."

"Could be killed? Get thrown into a dungeon never to see the light of day? Get tortured painfully for a very long time before being fed alive to a pack of rabid dogs? See our loved ones abducted and used as leverage to force us to do horrible things?" replied Kay. "All within the realm of possibility. Honestly, It's more fun that way; to win knowing what could have happened if you didn't."

"That's rash and irresponsible," responded Tyron.

"You can leave this village any day you want, Tyron," Kay replied, smiling in playful defiance and taking another sip of his drink, which he was starting to enjoy. "Can't blame you. I, for one, would think twice about getting involved in one of my schemes. Speaking of which… I'm still working on one. Need more information, though. Nothing concrete, just a hunch. Even a pleasant little town like this is bound to have some dark secret somewhere or another. I just need to look in all the wrong places."


	15. Chapter 14: Elements

Astro looked from left to right. Shadow was beside him, while Warnado stood at a slight distance as if to observe them. The inn was still bustling, with people occasionally weaving through the foyer and between Shadow and Warnado.

"Shadow, we're both quite learned wizards," Astro began, "I think it would be beneficial for both of us if we discussed our abilities more in depth. How about it?"

"Yes, I would like to learn more about your abilities as well," said Shadow.

"And Warnado?" Astro added, a bit reluctant but well-meaning.

Warnado's head perked up at the sound of his name.

"A mutually beneficial exchange of magical knowledge and abilities? Sign me up!"

"Then let's head up into one our rooms," suggested Astro, "so we don't have random people eavesdropping on our strengths and weaknesses."

Shadow nodded in agreement, and the three of them headed up a narrow staircase and into a room, with Warnado closing the door to the room behind him.

"I am going to cast a spell which blocks sounds from coming in and out of the room," Shadow proposed. "It should prevent mundane attempts at listening in."

"Go ahead," said Astro.

Shadow glanced for a moment toward the door of the room, and a white rune came into existence on the surface of her lower cheek, glowing briefly before fading imperceptibly into the blackness of her skin. Suddenly the unconsciously audible rumble of the outside crowd voices, street carriages, and occasional bird chirps ceased to be heard, leaving only the sounds of Astro and Warnado's breaths. Shadow, who lacked breath or even a heartbeat, made no sound at all. Astro could not help but be unsettled by this, in spite of his previous knowledge of Shadow's lack of life energy.

Then, Shadow took in a breath in preparation to speak. "That should do it."

"Since we're in a soundproofed room, I'll ask the obvious question, Shadow," said Astro. "Why aren't you breathing? Or, more to the point: given your lack of any life signs or energies whatsoever, how are you still alive?"

Shadow explained: "I exist in a state of equilibrium, I do have energy inside of me but of opposing elements so to the outside it looks like I have none at all. Though, you are right in your questions, I am technically not alive, neither am I dead nor undead. I lack most things that a normal human needs, like blood or a metabolism in general. All of my muscles are actuated by my magic and when I eat something it is also quickly broken down into energy."

Astro's brows rose. "That's… interesting. Right, 'elements' … How do those work in your world?"

"Magic is a single uniform force in my world, able to influence almost all aspects of reality, rewriting reality itself is not something we can do though. It can also take on different forms that only influence certain aspects of reality but are easier to handle, these forms are called 'elements' in my world. For example the Air element gives its user control over both wind and lightning. The opposing force to Air would be Earth, though that name is not indicative of what it actually does, Earth is used to alter the caster's own body."

"Okay, that makes sense," said Astro. "Our concept of elements is much the same but is purely academic - it doesn't really have any practical application anymore. It's just a matter of knowing what you have available. Magic-users don't really engage in elemental specialization and just go with what they find easiest or most enjoyable.

"The main difference between users is the source of their power and its limitations. In my case, I was born with it. There are also Thaumaturges, who use a material known as thaumium as a magical fuel source. Thaumaturges are mostly pretty rudimentary in terms of the magic used - very military-focused and really just like having firepower. There's academic debate as to whether they aren't just particularly advanced and aggressive enchanters but we don't need to get into that. And then there are the administrators and moderators…" Astro trailed off. "Servants of the True Court, appointed by Notch - well, Jeb, now - and granted power from the Wells. They sort of run things, at least when they're not bickering amongst themselves and spreading war and misfortune in the process."

"Moderators?" Shadow inquired.

"Yes, why?" Astro asked.

"I need to explain another peculiarity about my world first. The world I entered this one from is artificially created, it can be accessed from the world where I was actually born. That world is one without magic but highly advanced technologically. There are other artificial worlds but none are as advanced as the one I came through. The ones creating and managing these worlds are known as admins, their assistants as moderators."

"An artificial world inside another world, connected to this world? Sounds advanced alright. So what's so special about these moderators of yours?"

"I was simply intrigued that the word exists in both of our worlds for different yet similar roles. At this point I can imagine that the overlap is actually fairly big, though with something like magic we may have different words for the same underlying force."

"Yes, it does seem that way," said Astro. "So, you basically have all these opposed elements inside of you, doesn't that mean you can just use whatever sort of magic?"

"The element known as Ender is actually what allows you to do anything, though it is harder than using the specialized elements. It's the difference between setting and healing a bone with your mind and letting specialized magic do it for you, there are also things that have no corresponding special element. As for me, I have access to both the easy and specialized magic and the difficult and flexible magic."

"So you're a magical generalist, sort of like me. We likely share quite a few abilities. We could learn a lot from each other," said Astro.

Astro turned toward Warnado. "What about you, Warnado? How does your magic work?"

Warnado shrugged. "I don't know. I just use it when I feel like it."

"Do you at least know where it comes from?" Astro asked.

"It runs in the family," Warnado said tersely.

"Is that why you have that cute part demon-looking face?" asked Shadow.

"How did you know that?!" Warnado responded with embarrassed irritation.

Shadow chuckled. "The spell hiding your face actually proved somewhat difficult to circumvent without breaking it, it lacked any patterns usually found in spells of trained mages." After a short pause she added with a sly grin: "But don't worry, your cute part demon-looking face is safe with me."

"So, Warnado, you can use some illusion magic, if that's the right word for it in your world," Astro surmised. "I've also seen you conjure tools and weapons a few times… and occasionally food, which is actually impressive. But it's hard to grasp the extent of this ability: whether you can only do those pre-determined things, or if you can also use magic more flexibly."

Shadow remarked: "There is actually something in my world that could be at least similar to his state. When someone discovers their magical potential, their life force gains a will of its own and when presented with the right situations it will apply its power in a way that somewhat lines up with its owner's will. Magical training consists of fusing your life force and your will together so that eventually the power is completely under your control."

"Supposing Warnado does have that form of magic," Astro mused, "how could it be uncovered?"

"To be precise, I wouldn't call it a 'form' of magic as much as a state of control or lack thereof, I'm pretty sure that this can occur with a variety of power sources," clarified Shadow. "But to answer your question, the best way to uncover it is through training."

"You wouldn't happen to be able to provide that sort of training, would you?" Warnado asked.

Shadow smiled. "Depends. There are specific magical abilities which would help the training advance at a reasonable rate. In particular, the ability to sense spells as they are being cast around you. This would allow the apprentice to adjust their spells to match the spells cast by the teacher. This helps especially in the earlier stages, when the apprentice is still learning how to form a spell properly and control its flow in order to conserve energy."

"I can do that," said Warnado. "Well, I wouldn't say I'm an expert of telling the difference between a necromancy spell and the magical effects of outrage-inducing clickbait, but I'm sure I could manage."

"So," Shadow said. "How about you try casting a spell, any spell you have cast before and would recognize."

Warnado clears his throat. "Alright then, here goes nothing."

Warnado stretched his arm out and a light blue light spread outward from his palm into a shape of a ghostly, translucent battleaxe.

"Great," said Shadow. "Now, I want you to close your eyes, and pay attention to the magic coming from me. When the magic stops flowing, tell me what you felt."

"Okay," said Warnado, as he closed his eyes.

Shadow opened her hand, and the same light blue light poured out from her palm and expanded to form a battleaxe just like Warnado's.

"That's my battleaxe!" Warnado proclaimed.

"Yes, that's right," said Shadow. "What about this now?"

Shadow opened her other hand, this time not energy came out of her palm but solid stone, growing into the exact same axe that her other hand was holding.

"Some sort of earthbending," Warnado answered. "Like, stone appearing out of nowhere."

"You can open your eyes now."

Warnado opened his eyes.

"It seems you do have some ability to sense magic coming from others," observed Shadow. "You are best at recognizing spells you are familiar with, but have the ability to determine the structure of unfamiliar spells. That's a good start." The ethereal and stone material of the battleaxes in Shadow's hands crumbled and returned to her palms. "For now, I believe I have a good sense of you and Astro's magical abilities. Astro, are there any additional questions I can answer about my abilities?"

"I am satisfied," said Astro. "And you?"

"I am sure there is much we can learn about each other's abilities, but for now yes, I think this is a good start," Shadow said.

"I do appreciate the candor that you and Fire share. It's refreshing," admitted Astro, reflecting sorrowfully of the many secrets he had to worry about, a fact of his life best left unsaid.

"I imagine this will be the first of many future fruitful exchanges of magical information," concluded Shadow. "Any further words before I take the sound barrier down? Or perhaps I could leave it up for a while."

"No need," said Astro.

"I could do with a bit of action right now," responded Warnado.

A rune flashed on Shadow's face, and the muffled cacophony of the crowded village returned.


	16. Chapter 15: Ravine

Jennifer knocked on the inn door cautiously. "Destiny, are you in there?" she asked.

When there was no response, Jennifer sighed, opened the door, and went inside. Steve and Fristad stayed just outside of the door, looking into the room with worry.

Destiny lay on the bed on her side, with her arms curled around her knees, staring outward silently. Her face was red and wet with tears.

"Thinking about David?" Jennifer asked.

Destiny nodded.

"You cared about him very much," Jennifer said.

Destiny sniffled and nodded eagerly, as a new tear streamed down her face.

"It's not easy, losing someone you love like that," Jennifer acknowledged.

"You don't understand!" Destiny said. "We weren't just close. We were inseparable. We fought in wars together. Our love stretched back so far and so deep that it was before we even existed."

"I may not understand completely, but at the very least, I know you are in pain," said Jennifer, her voice becoming firm. "And there are two things you can do in that situation. You can either be by yourself, and try to figure out how to deal with the pain on your own, or you can reach out for help, knowing that people maybe don't understand completely what you're going through, but usually have the best of intentions."

"Thanks, I guess, but I don't really need some generic advice about how to cope with loss. It should be pretty obvious I've already chosen to deal with it on my own."

"Okay, then," said Jennifer. "If you want to deal with it out on your own, then I won't ask about it again. Actually, the real reason I'm here is because I wanted to ask if you'd like to join us for some scouting of the land around the village. Steve is coming along," Jennifer pointed toward Steve. "He's my usual partner in crime; I've known him for years. And that over there is Fristad. He's…" Jennifer hesitated for a moment, thinking of how to describe Fristad without mentioning that mysterious book. "...from a different world from ours. But he's pretty nice once you get to know him."

"So what do you think?" Jennifer continued. "Want to blow this village potato stand and explore the outdoors?"

Destiny gave an exasperated sigh. "If David were here, he'd say yes, so I guess I'll go."

"Great!" said Jennifer, with a wide grin.

Steve, Jennifer, Fristad, and Destiny descended the inn stairs and entered the streets of the village. Their appearance and demeanor were sufficiently different, that if one saw them walking separately, one would never suspect they knew each other. Steve and Jennifer walked with the sense of purpose and physical fitness only experienced adventurers could have, and their bulky, full suits of iron armor gleamed like new. To be fair, in this case, they were rather new, although Steve and Jennifer had already spent several days mining underground. Fristad walked with somewhat less grace, still not used to the weight of his new black diamond armor, and his eyes stared out cautiously through the holes of his helmet. Destiny walked more or less normally. The tears on her face were starting to dry and her cheeks losing their redness, but there was still an intense look in her eyes, as if she was searching desperately for someone hiding in the distance.

"By the way, Destiny," Steve began, "I've been meaning to ask you, would you like some new iron armor? We still have a surplus of iron left over from our mining trips the last few days."

"Thanks, but I'm fine," Destiny replied in a rushed voice.

Once both the village and the surrounding farms passed behind the four explorers, Jennifer advanced ahead and began to zigzag between various landmarks, crouching down to a stone here, feeling the bark of a tree there. Meanwhile, Steve whistled a favorite tune that he used to sing with his friends back at home. When his song ended, he turned toward Fristad.

"Do you have any songs you like from your world, Fristad?" Steve asked.

"I've got a few," said Fristad.

"How does one of them go?" Steve encouraged.

"Like so," Fristad said, as he began to whistle a tune.

"That sounds nice," Steve said, after Fristad stopped whistling. "Is it some sort of classical music?"

"I don't know," Fristad said. "I learned it in school when I was a little kid."

"That's interesting," Steve said. "Back at home, me and my friends used to make songs together, mostly just for fun. We even went through a phase where we invented a bunch of musical instruments to go along with them. Well, 'invented' is probably the wrong word. Most of them were based off of musical instruments that already existed, and the rest were sufficiently terrible that we discarded them afterward and never spoke of them again. What about you, Destiny? Do you have any favorite songs?"

"Sorry, I'm not in the mood," said Destiny.

Steve and Fristad continued their conversation for a while. But then, out of the blue, Steve sprinted away from Fristad, cheering triumphantly.

"Steve, what are you…" Fristad trailed off.

"Finally, another cave!" Steve proclaimed.

"What are you so excited about?" asked Jennifer. "We already have plenty of resources."

"Yes… but do we have diamonds?" Steve asked rhetorically.

"I thought we already established that this world doesn't have any," remarked Jennifer.

"That may have been true at the place we were before, but remember, this dimension is a patchwork of many other dimensions, some possibly with diamonds."

"Ooooh," Jennifer replied in realization. "But don't get excited yet! Let me take a look at it. We don't know if this cave even goes anywhere."

"Trust me, I know the beginning of a big cave system when I see one," Steve insisted, already pulling some torches out from his pocket.

"Even cave systems from other dimensions?" Jennifer grinned. She approached the wall at the beginning of the cave, cupped her hand, and leaned her ear against it. Then, she picked a rock off the ground and threw it down into the abyss, listening to the sounds of the echoes as it fell.

"You're right, that is a big cave!" Jennifer said.

"Alright then, let's go!" Steve said.

"Now, hold on…" Fristad said. "Don't me and Destiny get a say in this? After all, you're basically asking all of us to go into a dark cave full of monsters on a whim."

"Let's go in the cave," Destiny replied deadpan.

"I... guess I'm outnumbered," Fristad said.

"Hey, _you're_ the one wearing enchanted diamond armor!" Jennifer pointed out. "We have to catch up to your level of armor protection."

"Yea. Don't remind me."

"You're falling behind, guys!" Steve said, his voice echoing in the mouth of the cave up ahead. Already, the entrance to the cave was lit with splotches of torchlight.

"We better catch up to that guy," Jennifer said, smiling and shaking her head. "Or else… who knows what trouble he'll get into."

The three caught up with Steve in the cave tunnels. Already, the tunnel they were in was massive.

"These tunnels are mined out completely," Steve noted. "Someone must have been very careful to clean up all their torches when they left. Or maybe they just carried one torch with them the whole time? Seems inefficient."

"The musings of a guy with infinite pocket space," Fristad declared.

"I was starting to get the impression that it's the exception rather than the norm," said Steve.

A few cave turns later, and the ground ahead of Steve gave way to a huge ravine.

"Wow!" said Steve, peering down into it. "I've seen quite a few ravines in my time, but this one is massive. I can't even see the bottom. It seems to be covered by some sort of unilluminated fog."

As Steve observed the ravine, he reached back into his pocket to pull out a water bucket, then placed the water source against the cliff face. The source expanded into a veritable flood of water as it poured down into the ravine

"I'm dropping into the ravine to take a quick look at what's down there. Would anyone like to join me?" asked Steve.

"Are you sure that's wise?" asked Fristad. "A deep ravine from another dimension is bound to have dangerous monsters."

"It's only a quick look," argued Steve. "Besides, any diamonds we find are going to protect us from danger in the future."

"I'll stay up here," said Jennifer. "If Steve does find something dangerous, we always have the radio."

"I don't have a death wish," said Destiny. "I'll stay here."

"Very well," said Steve. "I'll see you all in a short while, which is significantly longer than a jiffy, but hopefully less than twenty minutes."

Steve jumped down into the ravine, just in front of the stream of water, and his iron-armored body hurtled down until it vanished into the fog.

As Jennifer led the way into a closed-off cave, Fristad couldn't help but look back behind him and wonder if Steve fell to his death.

"Hey guys," Steve said, about fifteen minutes later, startling Fristad and Destiny.

"How was the ravine?" asked Jennifer.

"Not bad," said Steve. "I found enough diamonds for all of us. I also got a couple ender pearls, a half-stack's combined of creeper, skeleton, and zombie drops, and restocked on redstone."

"What?" said Fristad.

"Yes, exactly," said Steve. "Oh, and I almost forgot, I found this strange, glowing, blueish purple ore." Steve reached into his pocket and pulled out a sample of the stone, which had an irregular, wrinkled shape. "I have no idea what it is. I haven't seen this kind of ore in my world before. Any ideas, Fristad and Destiny?"

"No clue," said Fristad.

Destiny shook her head to convey the same.

"I'll add that to my list of unsolved mysteries, then," Steve mused, as he slid the glowing rock back into his pocket. "Anyways, now that we have diamonds, shall we continue our survey of the surface?"

"Sure," said Jennifer, grinning. "But save some treasure for me next time."

Steve, Jennifer, Fristad, and Destiny returned to the surface, and as they continued exploring they would occasionally stumble upon a lone hut. Sometimes when Steve would knock on the door, there would be no answer. Other times, its weary inhabitant would open the door from the other side and answer politely, but beyond that the inhabitant would reveal little. But nothing in the course of that trip could compare to the mystery that still hung over everyone's heads: How did they all get here?

In the mid-afternoon, Steve and the others stopped by the village to sell some of their extra resources. The crowds had died down at this point, the quantity of pedestrians, merchants and cobblers more closely representing the number of buildings the village could sustain. In the distance, Steve swore he could hear Kay yelling about something.


	17. Chapter 16: An Embarrassment

The hall was tarnished, littered with bodies and dust. It wouldn't be like this for long so The Ender decided she had better take it all in while it was still there. It was that damned General according to one of their officers, the dog-faced one. He had gone as far as Astro's cell and then overpowered his escorts. They didn't know whether that was his intent the whole time or whether it was a split-second decision. Either way, they'd released a goodly chunk of the prisoners, who had in turn released more prisoners, who had in turn caused havoc throughout the Tower.

Her arm throbbed slightly. She looked down and saw singed scales and was reminded of David's little trick with the gauntlet. Killed several of her best soldiers. They would not be easily replaced. She could hardly go back to the homeworld, cap in hand, and ask the other generals to reinforce her. She was walking on thin ice with them. They were still intent on conquering the Nether back home and didn't see the startling range of possibilities out here, in the speckled, shifting mass of creation. They had defeated the humans and the other lesser beings. The Overworld was theirs. Going to the Nether was an old pipe-dream of a grudge and pursuing it would yield no profit.

The Entity had arrived and she had seen two paths. Her people could go and conquer all creation, or they could spend the next thirty years baiting pigmen into traps, clearing out castles and melting away into nothingness.

She knew her path was the one which would truly please the Ancestors…

"Need a potion?" Freak asked, drawing up beside her and waving a pink vial.

The Ender smiled and took it and grunted as her wounded scales reshaped and became bright and new.

"Thanks."

They turned around and began to wander toward the huge, open door, which seemed to droop outwards as though ashamed. They'd blinded the guards and walked right through. It was an embarrassment.

Freak spoke first as they walked onward: "The Ape is just about done clearing out the East wing. A few rogue Testificates found their way into the armory, but they should be dealt with. Bul will probably be with us any second now, shrieking wildly no doubt-"

At that moment a man shrieked wildly: "What was that?!"

He looked flustered, his suit all crumpled and covered in dust and blood. This was Marinus Bul, the Entity's steward and/or legal representative. He had been responsible for the negotiation. They should have just taken the Eye and the Crystals.

"The General betrayed us," The Ender answered flatly. "We'll deal with them soon enough."

She hadn't received word from Silver. The Grey Ones had demanded they be allowed to deal with Kay Mandy personally and they proved impotent. She was ashamed they had once been her own soldiers. Age had broken them. Now they were Glibby's problem.

Bul didn't seem to know what to do with himself. For once, absolutely no words seemed even in the vicinity of his tongue.

"Looks like our master's troops are back," sighed Freak. He pointed to a long black line marching along the horizon.

"Good, it'll be more lucid."

She grabbed the arms of Freak and Bul and teleported up to The Entity's chambers.

Sure enough, there it was. Bronze-coated and red-eyed, the Entity sat in its throne. She had tried to gain its attention earlier, but it was spread thin in a raid on World 32. It had manifested five times in that battle and there were several other manifestations Night-knows-where. This was as close to a prime meridian as the Entity had. Was this the first body it took? Who had it been before its influence? Maybe this was someone it had once cherished. Maybe there was no body in there and this was its most pure and undiluted form beneath the armour. The Ender didn't care.

She cleared her throat. Its head lifted and stared right at her.

A voice stripped of emotion and which echoed no matter what volume it spoke at sounded: "Yes?"

"General Mandy's party has departed. They have severely reduced the prison population. In particular, he took the wizard Astro and his former cellmates, leaving us deprived of-"

"It doesn't matter."

"But I thought we were-"

"The raid on World 0032 was a success. The Wizard's college is under our control."

"Oh," The Ender nodded, a realisation creeping through her until: "So, you decided to go ahead with that plan."

"Yes. In spite of your objections."

"And you-"

"We now have procured 527 new magic-users. I estimate 487 will survive the march home. Maybe 500 exactly if you adequately prepare at the primary work-site."

It began to pick at the ends of its white gloves, starting to edge them slightly closer to coming off. It never fidgeted, so this was a calculated and deliberate threat. Its red-glass eyes bore through her and though she'd never seen it show any emotion beyond interest or apathy, she was certain it was furious with her now. As close to fury as this constantly swirling husk was capable. The incoming light of dawn seemed to shake with fury on every part of it. The rubified eyes, the bronze seam. All seemed caught up in the restrained blaze. The Ender struggled not to quake before it, then it twitched and she felt herself released from its gravity.

"Yes, sir," The Ender bowed her head. "I'll be right on it."

"Excellent. After that, you are to immediately set about relocating the General and his fellow escapees. Freak, Bul-stay. Discussions… are necess-ary."

Bul shot her a snide, cruel look as she left. Freak furrowed his brows and became interested in the floor, but otherwise showed no opinion.

She left the room quicker than intended. She teleported away as though an arrow had been fired at her, and even as she walked away and began to bark orders in Endish tongues, she could hear the twang of bowstrings, and the whistle of wind through feathers.

She had to prove her worth, fast.


	18. Chapter 17: Faces in the Dark

As night fell upon the village, the streets emptied, and the bustling sea of voices was replaced by the sound of crickets and the occasional rustling of a somewhat restless wind. The inn's dining area was the only source of activity audible from the halls, and even then, by the third floor, most of the noise was lost in the walls.

Amanda laid in her bed with her eyes open, too lost in thought to notice the remaining echoes of activity from the other side of the door. And as her eyes closed and her thoughts slowed, the echoes of the voices and the outdoors faded from her awareness. At the edge of sleep, she was barely aware of footsteps, but her mind assured her that the footsteps must have come from another tenant outside the room. Surely, not from the inside. Surely, she was alone…

As she opened her eyes again, she found herself in a forest on a dark, moonless night. She was acutely aware she was standing upright, but had no knowledge of how she came to this place.

_Perhaps I'm having a brief lapse of memory,_ Amanda thought to herself. _I'm sure I came here for a good reason. I'm probably low on that flower that only blooms at night. I keep forgetting the name…_

Amanda reached over her back and felt her familiar crossbow in its usual place. She lifted it from her back and pulled on the lever until it was taut. She resumed her analysis of her purpose.

_Yes, that's probably it. I never leave on a trip without those long-lasting night vision potions, unless I'm stupid and run out of the catalyst. I really need to organize my stuff more. Now, where are those skeletons?_

As Amanda fingered a crossbow bolt and walked between the trees, it became clear that there were no skeletons nearby, or any monsters at all. In fact, as she kept walking, she still couldn't recognize where she was, and there were none of her usual navigation markers. She was starting to get nervous. As she reached into her pockets, she found them empty, nothing to light her way or give her any idea why she came here. Then, a disturbing realization occurred to her: she didn't remember how she got here, or even where she came from to begin with. No home. No familiar faces. No past memories.

Then Amanda panicked and turned her head. She aimed her crossbow and pulled the trigger. The arrow flew between the trees and vanished in the darkness.

_I swear I saw a face!_ Amanda insisted to herself.

The face she saw was only a flash in her vision, too brief to identify. The only lasting impression Amanda could recall from the face was a… deep sadness. And that it was human. And that it wasn't a child. That much she was sure of.

Old, maybe. Slightly familiar.

_Stop thinking about the face,_ Amanda ordered herself. _It was probably just a trick of the shadows. Just ignore it. It isn't real._

Then a jab drove a deep wound into Amanda's side and knocked her backward onto the ground. Amanda gritted her teeth against the pain and fumbled with her crossbow, cursing at herself that she didn't re-span it after firing, that if only she had paid more attention, she could have shot at the thing before it attacked her.

"Oh… I am real... alright," a disjointed, unidentifiable voice spoke.

The face flashed in Amanda's mind again. It was a disfigured face, as if two faces had been pasted together.

"Why don't you show yourself, you coward!" Amanda cried out. But by the time she had her bolt ready and was back on her feet, the face was gone.

"I am… sorry," the disjointed voice spoke. "If… if only you knew, it... would still make no difference."

"If I knew what?" Amanda inquired, breathing heavily. She gripped her crossbow tighter, pressing the trigger just softly enough that it wouldn't fire.

The voice laughed. It was starting to become more coherent. "Oh, you... innocent little girl. So... clueless. So alone. You believe so hard that all your tough talk can save you from what comes next. I… admire your bravery, I… really do. But you're wrong."

"Who are you? How did I get here? Why can't I remember anything?" Amanda demanded, her voice starting to stutter with fear. "I… I swear! I will find you, and I will make you pay for what you've done to me! Even kill you, if I have to!"

"Don't fear the monsters of the dark..." the voice replied cryptically.

Then, it was suddenly clear, this was not an adage, but a threat. The groans and rattles and hisses of countless monsters became audible. Amanda swiveled her head and counted five skeletons not a leap away. There was no contest. She ducked and ran away as fast as she could. Arrows whizzed and thumped as they embedded themselves in the tree bark and the forest loam. Amanda tripped over spiders and shoved aside zombies as she looked desperately for a tree to climb, or some end to the forest of monsters.

But there was none. Amanda kept running, but her breath only got thinner, and her legs only got heavier. Eventually, she could run no more. She tripped and fell upon a rock, and struggle as she could, she could not gather the strength to push herself up with her arms before the zombies grabbed her and the fangs of a spider embedded painfully into her skin.

But then, there was a light. The pain and tiredness and shapes of the forest floor all faded away, and she felt someone grab her hand. In a fleeting moment, the mysterious presence became grand and filled her with warmth. She felt as if she could trust it completely, even give her life to it.

But then, the presence faded and all was dark. Amanda wondered with fear how she could suddenly give such unconditional trust to such a being which she had only just encountered, and seemed intent on hurting her. Then she wondered if, perhaps, between that first encounter and the moment when the same being saved her, an entire lifetime had passed, only to be wiped away. And the thought of forgetting so many things filled her with dread.


	19. Chapter 18: Tired and Distraught

Warnado sat up quickly from the creaky inn bed, rubbed his eyes a few times, and bounced out from the covers with an enthusiasm that was quite unlike him this early in the morning. But there was a reason. Warnado was eager to make a change. And this was just the beginning.

Warnado did a few arm and back stretches, then some push ups, and then a few sit-ups before he got bored. Then Warnado sat on the bed and tried to think really hard about magic.

Warnado was then distracted by the sound of his door opening. Amanda appeared, tired and distraught.

"Warnado?" Amanda said.

"Uh oh, I'm really sorry, I didn't mean to wake you," Warnado said. "I'm not used to getting up this early in the morning."

"Don't worry about it," said Amanda. "Actually, I'm really glad that you're awake. I had a really bad nightmare."

"What kind of nightmare?" Warnado asked.

"One of the worst nightmares I've ever had," said Amanda. "There was this evil presence. It kept… shifting. Like, one moment it wanted to kill me, the next moment it's trying to save me… like it _wants_ something from me. And this forest it put me in… I don't know how to describe it. I felt so vulnerable and alone. There wasn't even anything out of the ordinary about the forest. I even had my crossbow with me. And yet…" Amanda's voice clogged up. A pair of tears left her eyes and painted her cheeks.

"That sounds like a really bad nightmare," Warnado said.

"I've never had a nightmare like that before," Amanda continued. "The fear… it was so overwhelming. And the forest itself felt so real. Not to mention… the presence… it was..."

Amanda's eyes widened, in panic and dread.

"The presence was what?" Warnado asked.

"I don't remember," Amanda muttered, her expression softening.

Warnado's mind began to compute the situation. Warnado knew Amanda well enough that he couldn't see her having a nightmare out of nowhere. There had to be some external cause. Most likely a magical one. But if magic was responsible for Amanda's nightmare, then who caused it? Was it someone in the inn? Was there a traitor among the group? If that were true, either Astro or Shadow must be responsible. In that case, who else could Warnado reach out to who had the magical knowledge to solve the mystery? Nobody, really. Besides, at least one of them is bound to be innocent, and if not, their knowledge of Warnado's knowledge might deter them from inducing a nightmare again. On the other hand… why now?

At this point, Warnado had a realization. Shadow had just joined the group. She seemed nice… but maybe that was just a mask to hide her real intentions? But if Warnado was wrong, and Astro was the real threat, then telling Astro only would give him a head start to cover his tracks. Warnado had made up his mind. He would talk to both Astro and Shadow about it, to hedge his bets.

Warnado's mind returned to the situation at hand.

Warnado said firmly. "Whatever this presence is, if it is real, I'm going to make sure it doesn't bother you again."


	20. Chapter 19: Tormentor at Large

Warnado was nervous all of the early morning, and he hoped it didn't show in the sound of the voice, or worse, in his face. He had relied on the veil so long. Knowing Shadow could see his face made him feel more vulnerable than usual, and it raised the uncomfortable possibility that there were other parts of him that were more exposed than he thought.

At one of the inn's dining tables, Warnado sat sipping the daily soup and noted the presence of Astro, who sat across the table nodding and making the occasional witticism as Kay spun an arguably exaggerated story about one of his past adventures. Meanwhile, Shadow sat next to Amanda and talked and smiled with her. This upset Warnado greatly, but he didn't say anything and tried his best not to think about it. After all, there was still a significant possibility Shadow wasn't responsible for Amanda's nightmare.

The guy in the weird black armor who was with Steve and Jennifer was sitting next to Warnado. Warnado tried to remember the guy's name to kick off the conversation, in an attempt to be social, but eventually just gave up and tapped the guy's shoulder.

"Hey you," Warnado said.

"Oh. Hey, Warnado," the guy said, with a less enthusiastic voice that suggested he just got out of bed.

_Right,_ Warnado thought to himself, _Fristad. That's his name._

"Fristad," Warnado began, "when you really want to do something, but aren't motivated to do it, how do you convince yourself to follow through with it?"

Fristad raised a brow. "Well, what are you trying to do?"

"I'm trying to lose weight," Warnado blurted out. "Well, actually, not really. But… assuming I was. And let's say, just for the sake of argument, I really liked eating cookies. And just to be clear… I do NOT have a problem with chocolate chip cookies. I eat TACOS. And it is not an addiction."

Fristad frowned. "Okay, fair enough. So you want to know what I think?"

"Yea."

"I think you're only going to feel worse if you keep ignoring it, so you might as well follow through."

"Right, but this is a metaphorical losing weight issue, not an actual issue with my physical health," Warnado clarified.

"I know," said Fristad. "My advice also applies to women and other human relationships, in case that's what you're after."

Warnado found himself at a loss for words. And feeling more exposed than before.

"Screw it. I am sick and tired of this soup. I'm going to magically summon some tacos. Do you want some?"

Warnado fiddled with the remaining grease still stuck to his fingers, and listened to the outside noises fade away as Shadow's runic spell cast a wall of silence around the inn room. At this point, Warnado suspected Astro was still under the impression that they were all here to discuss more details of their magical abilities. He wasn't quite sure what Shadow was thinking.

Warnado cleared his throat and prepared himself to deal with the uncertainty that came next. "Guys, I know I said I had some important questions about your magic, but actually, something bad just happened. Last night, Amanda had a disturbing nightmare that seems to have been magical in origin. And I want to know who was responsible."

Warnado couldn't help but glance over at Shadow for a moment, before switching his gaze toward Astro.

"Now, I'm not trying to imply that either of you did it, but I also can't rule out the possibility. If there's a traitor among us, or one of the Entity's spies hiding somewhere in the inn, we need to know as soon as possible. Since you two are the only magic users in the group I know of besides me, either one of you could have caused the nightmare. I need to know I can trust you."

Both of them paused, but after an uncomfortable silence, Shadow was the first to speak: "It's going to be difficult to resolve this in any positive way… Naturally if either of us was behind those dreams they wouldn't just flat-out admit it. Any attempt at finding a guilty party could be seen as shifting blame and since we don't know each other very well we also have no past trust to build on. Still, did Amanda happen to mention a radiant woman dressed in white? If she's involved I can imagine how the nightmare came to be."

Warnado considered for a moment whether he should withhold information, but decided quickly that could only lead to more distrust. "Interesting you should mention that. Amanda wasn't very clear about what the presence in the dream looked like. I think she may actually have forgotten, as if the memory of it was too horrifying to remember."

"That's a dead end then. She would have remembered the Lady" Shadow sighed. "She wouldn't have been in the nightmare anyways, if anything she'd have preceded it. For clarification, she's a benevolent phantom that lives in dreams but if you throw her out it often results in nightmares. Fire has some history with her."

"What do you think, Astro?" Warnado turned toward Astro. "Does this kind of nightmare remind you of anything?"

"I've had my share of nightmares, but there's generally a reason behind them," said Astro. "More reasons than I'd care to admit. What makes you certain Amanda's nightmare was magically induced? We've been through some traumatic stuff these last few days. She was there when David blew his own arm apart." His voice faltered as he remembered their fallen comrade, his former cellmate.

"Look, I know Amanda better than anyone else here," Warnado said, frustrated. "She's not the sort of person who would cry from a bad dream, let alone have a nightmare because of _that_."

A small voice in Warnado's head admitted to itself that maybe Astro was right, maybe Amanda really did just have a nightmare. But then, Warnado reminded himself of Amanda's face, how distraught she looked, as if the nightmare still had a grip on her…

No, there was nothing normal or mundane about this. Warnado did not have the best control over his magic, but his experiences over the years made him able to recognize when something was magically enhanced.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to cast doubt," said Astro. "I may be a wizard, but when it comes to dreams, I can't exactly read them like tea leaves."

Shadow suggested: "As for myself, I don't have much experience when it comes to dreams either, at least not to magically created ones where regular psychology doesn't apply. While I probably could induce dreams myself, I wouldn't risk it if I wanted to do anything with the person I'm inducing them in. Most people would just be flat out driven insane, or worse, if they came in direct contact with my mind. It's a side effect of the ascension ritual."

Warnado thought over Shadow and Astro's words for a moment. As frustrating as it was, it seemed like they were both being honest, at least on the face of things. There was no choice but to hope Astro and Shadow could help him. As long as they were willing to share information, that would bring Warnado closer to finding out what happened to Amanda.

"Okay, so, supposing you both are innocent…" Warnado mused, "who would have the ability to do something like that? And why?"

Shadow said: "I suppose that even if we can't make sense of the details of the nightmare, a bit more information would be helpful since we could find out the motivation of whoever created it."

"Good point," said Warnado. "Although now that I think about it, Amanda didn't mention many details of the dream. Just that she was in a forest, and that there was an evil presence. I want to ask her about it again, but I'm worried it will make her more upset. Then again…"

"If she's more calm, she might be able to better describe more details of the dream," Astro suggested. "Besides, I don't have any other ideas of how to proceed in the short-term. Unless you have any ideas, Shadow?"

"Logically, if the assault isn't coming from us, someone else here must have magical abilities, they may not be from our group but they have to be nearby."

"Nearby… and not leaving anytime soon," added Astro. "A single nightmare doesn't strike me as enough to accomplish whatever nefarious goal this stranger has in mind."

"That's what I'm afraid of," Warnado said.

"Wherever they are, they can't hide forever," Astro insisted. "Every use of magic has a magical signature. We just need to be around at the right time to detect it. Let's assume the stranger plans to repeat themself. We take night shifts just outside Amanda's room."

Shadow nodded. "We need to keep in mind that Nexus has an extraordinarily strong background magic field, which naturally causes interference and can wash away traces left by spells. Our dream weaver would be difficult to detect without magical means of surveillance, but on the other hand they are likely to be tipped off by any spells we cast. Nexus' magic field also allows for faster recharging after spell usage, which could mean that they can strike in shorter intervals than we might expect."

"That's certainly not ideal," Astro mused. "And I don't like the idea of this random guy potentially coming up with some new way to magically torment us, but you're right. We need to be more subtle in our plans. And more information wouldn't hurt."

"Maybe we can try to get more information about the village," suggested Warnado. "If we're lucky, maybe we'll notice something off that will hint about the origin of the dream weaver."

"That's a good idea," affirmed Astro. "In fact, we may already have some leads on that, since Kay, Fire, and Tyron were doing just that yesterday. We should ask them."


	21. Chapter 20: Heart-to-Heart

Right, I'll be honest, that whole "Look in all the wrong places thing" didn't work out remarkably well. I went to the magistrate's office to try and get an audience. Her secretary didn't even bat an eye no matter how often I mentioned I was an important General. I didn't blame her. I didn't even really have a plan once I got in there. Ask the magistrate who the Prophet was? Ask her where we were? Where she was from? Ask what to do next? Ask where I could buy a house and settle down here and pretend I wasn't interested in anything anymore? Ask when had I become so bad at coming up with a plan? Was I always this bad at it? Was I just carried by luck and bravado? Was I needed here? Was I even needed back home?

So I just ended up wandering around the markets feeling a little put-out and trying to avoid the others. I didn't even want to look at Fire for some exceptionally petty reason. And something felt wrong about Astro. He looked older, perhaps wiser, but definitely less optimistic. Definitely weaker physically too. The Grey Ones claimed to have waited eleven years. By Notch, could that even be possible? Could I even get back to my world as it was? I felt appallingly alone.

I bought some casual clothing. My usual tastes of cotton sweaters, leather belts and black trousers were easily satisfied so I found myself at a loss as to what to do. I couldn't even confidently change out of my armour without entrusting it to one of the Brines' bottomless pockets or the weird blue vortex in Tyron's back which he occasionally put things into and pulled things out of like a magician trying to get the right animal out of his hat. After arguing with a few merchants over the price of crossbows I found myself back at the inn. I saw Steve and Jennifer eating lunch on the main floor. We'd had something of a reconciliation in the arena but we hadn't really spoken since and I was in a bad mood so I just waved at them and put on a smile before marching up the stairs.

I lay on my bed for what felt like an age, twiddling with my torn scarf until I decided I'd best go and store some of my armour with Tyron. I could retrieve it at any given moment. A little difficulty in re-equipping myself but we weren't expecting an attack from the Entity any time soon and we probably weren't his top priority. He had his business interests to attend to and Warnado had loosed half the prison.

So I changed, bundling up my armour and carrying it overarm.

Tyron was lying on his bed staring at Kir, his body language suggesting they were in the midst of a conversation.

"Hello Tyron," I said, knocking on the open door. I reached out with my mind and added: _ "Hello little guy."_

"Hi Kay," he responded, smiling. "What do you need?"

"Mind if I store some armour in your mysterious blue void?"

Without missing a beat: "Yeah, sure, no problem."

And so I handed them to him and in a few brief flashes they were stored.

"That all?" he asked.

"Yep, I'm good thanks."

My mind must have looked sad because his eyes flicked toward his sword and then back to me.

"You sure you don't want to talk?"

"No, seriously, I'm good," I insisted, forcing a renewed smile.

_ "Sure?"_ chirped Kir in concern. _ "Seem sad."_

I remembered the Lady.

Something about Kir's sincerity was convincing. Enticing. I went and sat down in the seat in the corner.

_ "Tell all about it."_

"Well, I'll spare you the details of my childhood, so I'll start with the day I met Astro. You see, I'd recently stolen a chicken…"

And so I told him. I had met Astro about five years before. I was low on funds and Aaron and I were living together. My house. The one I'd been given on arriving in Zine Craft. We wanted to go legitimate. I loved Cossack and Secret and Small and everyone. They were my closest friends and I knew they had my back. But I couldn't bear that lifestyle anymore.

There would be no more highwayman work; no more collecting debts for loan sharks; no more criminal bollocks. Problem is, once you've built up a reputation for yourself as a dodgy bastard it's hard to get rid of it. Couldn't even get work in the mines. So I decided to poach on the side to get food. Then they cracked down on poaching so I decided to try and steal a chicken right out of a Moderator's garden.

I got caught and they put me under house arrest. I thought we were done. About to starve to death or go back to that life. Then, he mentioned a friend of his was coming over. An Arcadian wizard called Astro. Ended up becoming the Administrator's apprentice.

And he helped me fly again. Gave me funds to rebuild my old airship. To build a business off that and go wherever we wanted. For about three months, life was fantastic. Then, the day it was all rebuilt, they blew up my house.

Long story short, Astro and I had pissed off a Moderator and a captain of the guard respectively and they decided to put us back in our place by bombing my home. I'm still bitter now so you can imagine how furious I was back then. So, I decided to organise a conspiracy to assassinate them, and I predictably got caught and chucked into prison.

That's around the time I got into Herobrine worship again and then he resurrected himself and I started getting visions. Eventually I and some other Thaums and dissidents were able to organise a mass breakout.

After that, I rode all the way out to Herobrine's camp. To follow the visions. I rode for a straight week. I stopped to eat twice. I stopped to sleep once. They had to drag me into his tent. Seeing those glowing eyes flicker before me, looking to me like the only fixed point in a world churning like river-rapids, was the happiest moment of my life.

I fought for him to the very last. For Herobrine. For an independent Thaumic nation. To stop the Endlings from carrying out their little plan. I fought, and I tortured and I killed until eventually I found my way back to Zine Craft. I'd assumed the others had had the good sense to get out of there long before the war arrived so you can imagine how surprised I was when I discovered my best friends were the ones raiding my encampment. They didn't know it was me, naturally. I didn't know it was them either until I chased down Astro. Astro almost killed me and then almost cried when my helmet fell off and he saw my face. He swears he hadn't even heard of "Herobrine's Lap Dog" at that point.

And so things unfolded. They escaped just before we arrived in Capital City and Notch and Herobrine duelled and I was there and Notch died to Israphel and then half the city blew up. Met my old nemesis while I was there too. That's another story. One I'd rather not go into right now. Best not to dwell on what he did.

I then passed a few weeks being decorated and praised to high heavens in Mojang as Jeb and Herobrine negotiated the new status quo. Then that new status quo consisted of setting fire to the Southern Thaumlands and giving the Inquisition free reign. Because of course Jeb wasn't really the one we were negotiating with. It was Dinner Bone and Grumm. Herobrine only barely convinced me not to lead a coup. Couldn't divide the camps, otherwise the Endlings would be back - the full force of the Obsidian Families this time, not the surgical army we had to deal with. The Court of Whispers might have joined them. I still think we could have put up more resistance...

"I only wanted to be with my friends after the first fireships went in. And now, beyond keeping them safe, I don't think I want any more causes," said I, numb. I couldn't remember if I'd started out talking aloud or whether I'd started out streaming thoughts to Kir. I likely faded between the two.

However I'd started, it was Tyron who responded: "And yet, here we are."

"Yep."

"Life can be pretty awful sometimes, can't it?"

"Yep."

"We've just got to keep going."

"Yep."

"Can I get an answer that's not one word?"

I smiled wryly: "I suppose."

He laughed. "Nah, I know how you feel. It never gets easier. But if we don't do it, who else will?"

"I think I just wanted the world to like me."

A gust of wind and light caught the curtain and blasted it upwards and on. I stood up and allowed the wind to drift me toward the door.

"Thanks, this has been a good talk," I smiled. "You'll have to tell me your story some time."

Tyron just looked at me, face unblemished by anything resembling a smile, locked in permanent seriousness, yet an utmost satisfaction and benevolence had crystalized in his eyes.

_ "Will do someday,"_ said Kir, with the same wistful kindness.


	22. Chapter 21: Inspector Kay Mandy

After they checked the inn and consulted Jennifer on the location of Fire and the others, the three wizards went into an unusual shop and found Fire and Kay negotiating with the shopkeeper on the price of an enchanted crossbow which looked particularly valuable. It was entirely made of metal and had intricate engravings along its surface. The shopkeeper had a rough appearance, with an old face which seemed almost permanently locked into a scowl, a heavy iron chestplate, and pants that appeared to be a patchwork of furs from about a dozen different animals.

"I am truly insulted by that number. I have many good bowmen customers who would pay good diamonds for the master metalworking in this alone," the shopkeeper proclaimed as he pointed at the crossbow. "But the enchantment in this beauty is truly something you won't find anywhere else, I assure you. It makes bolts fly three times as fast and pierce enchanted diamond armor with ease, augments the strength of the bow to last a lifetime, and even enhances the accuracy of the bolt as you aim!"

Fire inhaled somewhat demonstratively. "The crossbow itself is mastercrafted without a doubt but I may have some bad news about the proficiency of the enchanter. Enchanting a pure steel crossbow is no easy task, it has no gold elements to better absorb the enchantment and whoever did this one was clearly quite out of their depth. While the simpler components as the enhanced durability and increased stability are as advertised I'm afraid that the rest isn't. At most it will make the bolts fly one and a half times faster instead of three and the part that enchants the bolts as they are fired won't even work properly. On top of that the entire thing is leaky, which means that the lost energy will be taken from the user instead, combined with the energy expense of the complex components this will quickly lead to exhaustion in the average user. Most of those mistakes are salvageable but naturally result in severely reduced value due to the additional required effort."

"Ah, yes," replied the shopkeeper. "But the steel is masterfully worked nonetheless, and this crossbow is enchanted, which by necessity must mean it is even higher in value."

Fire said: "Yes, it normally would. But normally we are talking about things that have an arrangement of basic enchantments of them, which are strictly positive save for a few. This one is different though. As I mentioned, a leaky enchantment absorbs energy from its user to fuel itself, namely in the form of life force. A human with averagely high life force would deplete half of theirs with as little as ten bolts, which is the point where fatigue begins to set in and going even lower gradually increases the risk of death. This crossbow requires the locking of some of the runes, namely those that would enchant the bolts but in reality just vent the energy into the environment. As it is it is not usable and you would even be better off with a plain wooden crossbow since using this one is actively harmful."

Kay nodded sadly. "You should listen to Fire; he knows his enchantments." Then, putting on his most innocuous face: "Besides, it would be a shame if someone were to buy the crossbow in its current state and start spreading rumours about the shoddy nature of your goods."

"Well…" the shopkeeper relented. "I suppose you seem like the sort of people who would make the most of a bow like this. I will accept your offer."

Fire reached out and handed the shopkeeper a small lumpy bag, which he reluctantly accepted and stepped away. Shadow and the others stepped forward as Fire picked up the crossbow and glanced across the various runes, deep in thought.

Fire muttered: "Huh… leak seems to be caused largely by the faulty bolt enchantment part. The rest is just improperly assembled runes. Might be able to fix this on the spot, maybe not this spot but one that's a little quieter."

"Excellent," responded Kay.

"Acquiring another addition for your armory, Fire?" noted Astro.

"Nah, not this time," Kay replied, allowing his accent to slip on seeing his old friend. "This one's mine. I've been looking to find a good ranged weapon for a while. So, naturally, I went for the next best thing available. What have you been at?" Seeing the other two magical folks he added: "Warnado, Shadow." The first had some warmth behind it. The second had some suspicion.

"Shadow, and Warnado, and I are trying to solve a mystery," said Astro. "Amanda seems to have experienced an unusual nightmare, and Warnado is convinced that the nightmare was magically induced."

Kay furrowed his brows: "It wasn't a pale lady, was it?" He shot a glance towards Fire but seemed reluctant to commit to it.

Shadow said: "Maybe don't throw her out next time. She really does want to help."

"We've ruled out that possibility, unfortunately," Astro said. "We were wondering if you've encountered some local rumors or some townsfolk behaving oddly, which might point us in the right direction. Anything involving magic usage or dreams could help."

Fire said: "This village doesn't have much in the way of magic, they were easily impressed by simple pyromancy when I wandered through here last. Still, we are close enough to the Tower that the Entity's minions might be involved."

"If there are any of the Tower's agents in this little town at the moment, they've been doing a rather excellent job of concealing their existence," noted Kay. "That, or, an absolutely terrible job of finding and re-capturing their prisoners. But they definitely have a great deal of influence here. Several of the farmers and a whole variety of professionals have lucrative supply deals with the Tower, and I've encountered a few locals who've made some deals they've regretted with scars to show for it."

"So… that leaves me, Shadow, and Astro as the only known magic users," Warnado concluded with disappointment.

"That isn't _quite_ true," Astro said. "Tyron and Destiny also have some magical ability. I didn't bother to bring it up earlier because their forms of magic didn't strike me as versatile enough to be used to alter dreams, but in light of our lack of other possibilities, we may have to reconsider that. There is also Tyron's sentient sword, Kir. Psychological torture doesn't exactly strike me as fitting Kir's personality profile, but it's also strangely convenient that Kir is able to project his voice into other people's minds at will."

"That's right. I forgot about that," said Warnado, becoming angry with himself for not remembering that sooner. "But that makes five possible people who could have induced Amanda's nightmare. Six, I guess, if you're including the possibility that I am using this to cover up my own crime. But still… how are we supposed to narrow that down?"

Fire said: "For completeness' sake I should add that while I can use magic, it is limited to pyromancy and I can only cast if I have an external power source."

"Okay, _technically_ there are seven magic users, then," Warnado amended. "Each with varying skill, but in light of our lack of information we can't assume we have the abilities we say we do. Basically, we're all playing a less deadly but more magical version of the award-winning board game Clue. Not sure what Clue is but we have that to consider. So, how should we proceed?"

Kay raised a hand with an uncharacteristic sheepishness. "I can commune with Herobrine, allowing him to semi-physically manifest in a location for brief periods of time, but I think that's more a religious thing than a magic thing and I haven't tried that in months." When people just kind of stared blankly at him: "I just wanted to put that out there." He looked at his feet awkwardly.

Warnado sighed. "Great, so anybody here could potentially be responsible. What's next? Steve shooting lasers out of his eyes?"

Astro said: "Given what we currently know about the abilities of each person, it would seem Kir is the most likely cause."

Kay looked up at this, emboldened again: "Now, hang on a second. That wee thing is incredibly friendly. And it hasn't betrayed Tyron in years of hero-work."

"True, but even I don't know much about Kir's abilities, and if we instead base our guess on personality and motivation, then our suspicion falls squarely on you and me. Well, Destiny might have her reasons, if we consider what she's been through recently. But her expertise is limited to hot and cold spells and she has not shown much in the way of creativity."

Kay was not yet deterred: "Yeah but what is exactly the significance of a nightmare? Even if magically induced, disturbed sleep has scarcely killed a man. I should know." He laughed and looked pleadingly to Astro.

This seemed to make Warnado angry. "If you saw how Amanda was affected by the nightmare, you would feel differently. This was not some low-tier magical prank. Whoever pulled it off is definitely capable of more dangerous stuff and is definitely not going to stop at just a nightmare."

Astro sighed. "To be fair, we still have not ruled out the possibility that the nightmare was simply ordinary, but have you ever seen Warnado this serious?"

Kay lowered his eyes and nodded empathetically. "Sorry."

"I must admit the idea of you being responsible is a just silly," said Astro. "Me, on the other hand… I could tell all of you that I'm innocent but that doesn't change much. What we really need is a process of elimination. A way to remove ourselves from the equation, ideally without the others knowing. And ideally handled by some neutral party to keep it all straight. But since Steve's group is gone and there's no telling when the true aggressor will strike, we'll have to improvise. Kay and Warnado, you should work together on this."

"Me and Warnado working as a team? Hmmm…" Pondered Kay, scratching his chin. "On the one hand I am biased in favour of finding both Astro and Warnado innocent and feel profound pity for Destiny but on the other hand I _do_ love a good mystery-solving caper." He picked up a magnifying glass from a table and began to ponder it like a certain Danish prince pondering a skull upon the stage. He seemed to relish being near the centre of attention again. "To detect, or not do that. Thus is my dilemma…" A pensive pause. "For the record, I'm waiting for someone else to say yay or nay on this one. I'm more than willing to do it, I just want to make sure no one has objections to me being involved."

"I realize it's not ideal, but neither is having Warnado do it on his own, and you're the only one here who can't use magic. Not any proper magic at least."

Warnado scratched his chin contemplatively. "I may also have some biases of my own, even though I don't talk about them. And besides, Kay being skeptical about the whole thing would balance out my strong motivation."

Shadow shrugged. "I don't know enough about you to say much but I agree with what you just said. Besides, I _probably_ should be one of the main suspects anyways."

Fire added: "I would fall under accomplice by association then. I'd also like to remark that as it stands we have no concrete motive pinned down."

Astro nodded. "It's settled, then. Kay and Warnado, it's up to you."

"In that case…" Kay raised the magnifying glass as if it were a sword and struck a dramatic pose. "Inspector Kay Mandy and Deputy Warnado, at your service."

Warnado dramatically waved his hand, summoned a ghostly blue magnifying glass, and struck a similarly combat-ready pose. "We will uncover the truth to the best extent of our abilities!"


	23. Chapter 22: Plenty to Go Around

Once Kay, Fire, and Warnado are out of the shop, I feel a bit like I have just sent two kids off on a camping trip. Young Kay, as usual, has a tendency to make light of these kinds of situations. It's a bit irritating, but I'm also just glad to see him in good spirits. It wasn't annoying back then, though. I guess we didn't realise just how bad it could get back then. Now it all just seems flippant.

I suddenly realize how tense my neck is, and tilt my head in the other direction. But the soreness doesn't go away. I let a trickle of healing energy into my neck, but the magic doesn't do much because there's nothing to heal. I consider using magic to move the muscles in my neck into the correct position, but given the delicate concentration required to put the muscles in just the right place, and the fact I use a similar technique to break people's necks, I decide it's probably best not to.

I glance at the shopkeeper's wares, mostly weapons, placed on the table, hanging from racks, and behind the counter. They all look relatively well-made. One shield in particular looks especially interesting, with a colorful gemstone-studded outer edge and a pleasing painted design that one might also find on the back of playing cards. However, I'm not really in the market for that kind of equipment, and given Kay's experience with the crossbow, I'd rather not risk a purchase.

Still, with Kay gone, and most of my other friends still stuck in another dimension, there aren't many better things to do in this small village. There's the pub, but I'm not really in the mood. Aside from that, there isn't a library I know of or any other public space of note. I don't know where Tyron or Destiny are and bearing in mind the magical plot going on I'm not feeling sociable enough to track down any of the others. At least Shadow is still here.

I glance over toward Shadow and see her inspecting a pinewood staff with a spiral contour along its length. At the top of the staff, the wood breaks free from the spiral and curves around a lapis-colored sphere in a hook shape that's relatively common for staffs. The woodwork is tidy but overall not impressive. What is more impressive is the contours and patterns of magical energy contained within it. From the way she inspects it, I get the impression she's not really interested in buying it and is only wasting time like I am.

"I never really bothered with staffs," I admit to Shadow. "I always found them unwieldy and a chore to charge up again." I ponder on whether this was part of what was sapping away my strength. Hubris.

Shadow looks over to me and replies: "Honestly, the only type of staff that's useful out in the field is one that helps focus certain spells instead of storing them."

"Honestly, I don't see the point of using a staff if it doesn't augment my magic in some way," I say. "There have been times where I would be better off with a staff like that. I always run out of energy at the least convenient moments. I've considered getting something smaller, but either the energy stored isn't worth the trouble, or there's some nasty side effects like not-so-temporary insanity or financial debt."

"I suppose your world is a lot less friendly when it comes to artifacts. Where I'm from energy storage gems are perfectly safe if used responsibly, in fact I have some on me right now." Shadow reaches down the neck of her robes and pulls out a finely crafted golden necklace with sapphires inlaid in regular intervals.

I raise my brows with a mix of intrigue and envy at the necklace. "That must be worth a fortune. I don't suppose you have a spare?" I remark, only half-jokingly.

"Not the necklace but I can give you my rings. They have smaller stones but still store quite a bit, I only packed this much storage because I didn't know how magically charged this world would be." With a wide grin she adds: "The answer to which turned out to be 'very'."

I look down at my hands and the rings that are on them. "If they are any better than mine, I might have to take you up on your offer. I have a few rings of my own which can store some magic, but the capacity is residual at best. Only really makes a difference in a survival situation."

Shadow pulls two identical rings off her fingers, one from each hand. The rings themselves are fairly plain but the gems they hold are masterfully cut.

"Those won't fit you, hold on. Give me your hand for a moment." She says and reaches out to me.

As she touches my hand the rings she holds in her other hand start glowing as the gold is heated up close to its melting point. Shadow traces along two of my unoccupied fingers and a few moments later the rings widen to the appropriate size, then rapidly cool down again.

I take the two rings from Shadow's hand and slide them onto my fingers, and the difference in power is significant. Just one of Shadow's rings holds more energy than all my own rings combined, and then some.

"Thank you," I tell Shadow sincerely.

She replies: "No problem. It's always good to help a fellow mage out."

Shadow's smile has a touch of camaraderie to it that makes me lower my guard. From a purely logical standpoint, Shadow is the person I should trust the least, since she is the person most likely responsible for Amanda's nightmare. But it's been so long since I've had the opportunity to confide openly with another mage about the more subtle intricacies of magic. And giving up such powerful artifacts in a situation like this is no small favor.

"Speaking as fellow mage, can I ask you one more favor?" I ask.

"What favor would that be, Astro?"

"I'm getting a bit bored of this little village and was wondering if you had any suggestions."


	24. Chapter 23: Getting in Some Practice

Shadow's gaze jumps over to the shop's door. "We could go out of town for a bit, fewer people and more opportunities for magical distractions."

I smile. This was the sort of answer I was hoping for. "That sounds like the start of an excellent plan. At the very least, it would be the perfect opportunity for me to test the capacity of these new rings you've given me. What sort of magical distractions did you have in mind?"

"Well, I suppose a magical variety of a board game is a good start. Does your world have chess?"

"I've played a fair number of chess games in my own world."

Shadow starts walking towards the door and signals me to follow. "Great, haven't had a proper opponent in a while. Fire's no fun to play against, his thousands of years of strategic experience were bound to carry over to chess."

"Now, that's a problem I can relate to! Although, my specific situation was actually the opposite."

I follow behind Shadow as she opens the door out into the village and walks out onto the streets, as I reminisce about the past.

"When I was at my best, most of my friends were no match for me. They eventually got tired of me winning, and eventually I got tired of playing while drunk. Even then, I couldn't exactly boast several thousand years of applicable experience. But it's been a while and I'm pretty rusty, and the years haven't been kind to my memory recall."

If I'm being honest with myself, they haven't been kind to my body either. Using magic for recreational purposes seems rather irresponsible, but I really do need the practice given the circumstances. Using my magic for something other than killing might also give me the will to hold on just a little longer.

It's cloudy. There's a slight breeze but not the chilling kind. The weather hasn't changed much since my discussion with Warnado and Shadow this morning. A few villagers struggle to carry a large crate as they walk past us. As we walk toward the edge of town, the breeze becomes stronger. A few kids are talking and leaning against the wall of a small house, but most people don't linger and are eager to get back to wherever they need to be.

As the clouds drag themselves sluggishly in the sky above us, the sun flickers and hides behind one, and the light of the village dims from the cloud's shade. There is something off about the light, although I can't quite place it. I glance toward Shadow and notice she's cast some sort of flight spell, enough to suspend herself about a hand's length above the ground.

She says: "I am just falling in love with this world. There is enough ambient energy here to sustain this spell indefinitely."

As I focus my attention on the slight change in energy induced by Shadow's unique ability to absorb magic, I realize the aberration in lighting is from Shadow's shadow. It is darker than everyone else's and seems almost as if it detached itself from her slightly when she jumped or took a long step, as if it is stuck to the ground.

"Does your shadow normally do that when you cast that spell?" I ask.

Then, the shadow suddenly _waves_ at me.

Shadow replies: "Oh, her. She's her own thing, she showed up after I ascended. I called her Wodahs, while not very creative it does stop people from saying 'Shadow's shadow', which gets old quickly. She usually sticks with me but when there aren't many people around she likes to go off on her own."

I raise a brow as I contemplate what sort of mischief that light deficit projection gets away with when no-one is looking. "Is it corporeal? I mean… is it capable of interacting with the world?"

Shadow nods. "She can't directly touch things but if they cast shadows she can interact with those, which reflects on the things themselves. She can't do much in total darkness or against someone invisible, weather like we have it now just hinders her a bit. I've also seen her cut shadows off things and carry them around, interestingly the separation causes no harm but interacting with the shadow still reflects onto what cast it."

I find myself alarmed, and questions start buzzing in my head about the nature of this creature and what other capabilities it has. Why didn't Shadow mention it earlier? Could it be responsible for Amanda's dream? What else is Shadow hiding? Calm yourself down, Astro. You still don't understand Shadow's motives, and in the meantime there's no need to make your suspicions well-known. Besides, there's also the chance that Shadow really does mean well. In either case, this little diversion lets you get a better sense of her abilities, so you might as well make the best use of this opportunity.

"Can it talk?" I ask, figuring that to be a friendly question.

"Sure can, doesn't do it often though. Usually the most you'll get out of her is a giggle. She is fluent in normal words as well as Demon, strangely enough."

So it can speak Demon? That certainly doesn't alleviate any worries. Then again, considering the other members of our group, Warnado included, that's probably the least of my concerns.

We step off of the village's cobbled stone paths and onto open fields, where we travel for a ways until we reach the boundary of a forest. We then travel a little further into the trees until we reach an uninhabited meadow, not too far away from the village, but just far enough to avoid unwanted attention.

I turn to face Shadow. "This seems as good of a place as any. Shall we begin?"

"Gladly." She says.

Accompanied by subtle flashing of various runes Shadow summons an ethereal chess board of enormous dimensions, complete with pieces of equally amazing proportions.

She explains: "You should be able to control your pieces with your thoughts, I'll let you pick a side."

"I'll pick that one, then," I say as I point to no particular side, and walk toward it. "Ladies first?"

"Yes, because you happened to pick black." Shadow smiles and moves a pawn two squares forward.

I respond in turn and will the first pawn of my own two squares forward. I'll admit, playing with a giant-sized chess board fueled by magic definitely makes it more fun.

We play through our first game slowly, adding a bit of flourish to the movements of our pieces. Then, before I know it, Shadow has already cornered my king, and in the next game I get a bit more serious. The second match, I manage to capture quite a few of Shadow's pieces, but I mess up my chance to capture her king and I quickly find myself in an unfavorable position.

"I think Fire's strategic prowess may have rubbed off on you," I point out, shaking my head in frustration at my predicament.

Shadow replies: "If it's of any solace to you, he said that while I have good strategies I don't have that many, which I also realize. Nothing like him in that regard, you can't get a read on him at all from one game to the next."

"He certainly sounds like a bit of an enigma." Good to get a bead on Fire, in case his sister is responsible and he takes her side. "Even to his sister it seems," I remark. I think for a moment about my position. It seems two of my pieces will inevitably be lost in the next few moves. There's one way I can avoid having one of my pieces taken, but Shadow will probably predict it if I attempt it.

Fast forward a few moves, and we find ourselves in a stalemate, with neither side able to advance without the other side able to move out of the way.

Even though this is just a chess game at its heart, I don't think I have had this much fun in a long time. But one of my new rings is hardly drained, and I do want to at least make it seem to myself that I'm doing something productive.

"Shadow, this chess game is more fun than I'm willing to admit. But could we switch to something more… active? Measuring the effectiveness of these rings is a bit difficult on ethereal constructs."

"What did you have in mind?"

I search my brain for some sort of magical activity. Ideally nothing remotely life-threatening, but enough to strain myself a little. I could come up with some other magically-enhanced leisure activity, but Shadow's ethereal chess game sets a high bar. I suppose it doesn't need to be so well thought out, just something that lets me cast a few spells. If my goal really is to measure the energy in these rings as effectively as possible, physical exertion is the best way to do that. I just need to be mindful of my body's limits.

"Play any sports?" I ask.

She replies: "I definitely have played some on the world I came to Nexus from. In the other one… not so much since I was more or less trapped in my own mind for most of my life there but nevermind that. I like ball sports, throwing and kicking, either is fine with me."

"A ball seems like a simple enough requirement." I think aloud. "The hard part is finding a sport that works best with two people. Perhaps we could play a simple game of catch? With a few additions?"

"Sounds good. I'll begin." She says and summons up a glowing white ball of magical energy in her palm, then tosses it in my direction without much force.

I hold my hands out, walk a few steps back, and prepare a bit of magical cushioning as the glowing ball descends toward me. The ball decelerates just enough that its energetic corona briefly touches my palms, giving a fuzzy sensation. I hold the ball suspended in my hands for a moment, as I focus on how far to throw it.

"Shadow, are you able to magically enhance your speed and strength?" I ask.

"By necessity, my muscles run on magic. Ascended, remember?"

"Oh... In that case, expect a few magically enhanced throws from me. But not this time." I throw the ball back into the air, with a little bit of effort to it, and the ball flies about twice as fast as Shadow's initial throw.

Shadow quickly walks backwards with more sureness than I expected since long robes usually tend to get in the way of that kind of movement. As the energy ball passes over her, she leaps up and slams it back in my direction, and I don't have time to think before the ball is directly above me.

I realize I might have gotten more than I bargained for. I turn around and sprint, the muscles in my legs assisted with the push and pull of magic, and catch the ball with both hands above my head. Unfortunately my hands end up submerged inside the energy ball, since I forgot to add cushioning, and before I am able to correct this mistake, my hands are scorched from the concentrated magical energy. I wince, push my hands out of the ball while trying to keep the ball in place, and purge the excess heat from my hands and heal their burns. I certainly can't let that unannounced increase in power go unanswered! I look in Shadow's direction and plot my throw, mentally preparing myself to enhance my movements again when Shadow reciprocates. I then throw my strongest throw and then some, with a little help from magic.

My throw goes further and higher than any previous one, too much for any ordinary human to have any chance of reaching or much less catching. "Alright!" Shadow shouts and zips diagonally upwards, leaving a trail of distortions in her path. Now things are starting to get interesting. As Shadow intercepts my throw, she stops the ball in front of her with both hands, and with an electric crackle the ball doubles in brightness. Instead of throwing it back at me instantly, Shadow pulls the ball apart into two identical copies, throwing one directly at me and the other one upwards, giving me just enough time to catch both if I plan my movements correctly. As soon as both balls are in flight, Shadow returns to where she originally stood.

I take a few rapid steps forward and cup my hand around the first ball, with protection this time, then accelerate backward past the white ball approaching fast from above. I hold up the ball in my hand and let the two orbs of energy combine into one, and as I hold my hand above me, I notice that the energy in one of my new rings has drained a bit. Then, I plot my next move. I inject the ball with a bit of unstable energy, and throw it hard.

As the ball flies into the air, the unstable energy leaks out of it in small bursts, causing the ball to zigzag. The ball is now only a short distance in front of Shadow, she opens her arms, I see some of her runes flash. The ball slows its movement as if it's being sucked in front of Shadow, where she catches it. However when she stops her spell the ball immediately teleports away again, she seems surprised by this, which gives me a bit of satisfaction. With a gesture of her hand she shoots a bolt of energy at the ball, causing it to promptly overload and explode into a flurry of lightning.

"Nice one," she says "we'll need a new ball now though, that one is too unpredictable."

I oblige and use the palms of my hands to concentrate energy into a new glowing ball, which takes a significant chunk of magic from my active ring in the process. I should avoid tampering with the ball this time so I can conserve my magic. Besides, I wouldn't want this game to end _too_ early.

I throw the ball up in the air toward Shadow. This one isn't my strongest throw, but is still magically enhanced. Shadow just runs over to where the ball is going and catches it normally. Perhaps I should have made my throw a bit more challenging.

Instead of immediately returning my throw Shadow… disappears? I hear an electric crackle from my right and suddenly the ball is almost in my face, caught off guard I only barely catch it, this time remembering to properly protect my hands first.

I then return her throw, the first of many more, and by the time the sun is near the top of the sky, my first new ring is drained of energy, and my second ring nearly so. I almost forgot that I was supposed to measure their energy capacity. My physical body is also showing signs of exertion, and while the rings have shouldered most of the burden, my body has been weakened by use of magic as well. I wipe a bit of sweat from my brow as I inspect the glowing ball I just caught. It is slightly smaller than it was originally. Its size has fluctuated as energy has been lost and added back into it. I consider throwing the ball one last time, but hesitate.


	25. Chapter 24: Should have stopped

"I think I'm done," I admit. "I wouldn't want to strain myself too much in case something bad happens. But this has been the most fun I've had in a while."

I toss the energy ball up into the air and let the energy dissipate quietly into a fading shower of white sparks.

"Shall we return to the village?" I offer.

Suddenly, Shadow sprints toward me, and with surprise I wonder if Shadow is trying to continue playing the game, but as she comes closer, my years of combat instincts start to evaluate her as a threat.

As she grabs my hand, my brain continues to yell at me and tell me to do something, but by the time my feet become disconnected from the ground and the world starts to slide underneath me, I'm still too surprised to react.

We are both rising extremely fast into the air, no doubt due to some magic Shadow is using, and the only reason I am not falling seems to be my temporary physical contact with Shadow's hand. I don't think I could fall from this height without being severely injured, and that's assuming I can exert enough magic to slow my fall. This is insanity.

The village's disorganized grid of houses has shrunk to a small pile of flat pebbles, and in the distance, this world's patchwork of environments has become apparent, with deserts rubbing against oceans and plains of ice. There is even a city off in the distance rubbing up against a vast forest wilderness, with a strangely jagged border between them, as if the city itself was ripped in two before one half was placed in this world.

Shadow steers us such that the world rotates beneath us, and another, closer city becomes visible. But I then recognize the fields and forest leading up to it, and I realize that was where I was imprisoned by the Entity. I didn't realize The Tower was at the edge of a city, let alone a city like _that_. The city is almost completely square, with a carefully pruned border between the city and the forest beyond it, and no discontinuities in the terrain close by. I can also just barely make out fine lines in the terrain, no doubt roads, fanning out from the city. Unlike everything else in this world, it seems that city was carefully planned.

Then, Shadow switches course yet again, this time making us descend quickly downward, the wind pushing against my face like a frigid waterfall. Before I know it, we're mere meters from the ground and weaving through the trees, and I fear I will hit something if I even dare turn my head.

Is Shadow even tired by this use of flying magic? Why won't she slow down?

"Shadow, slow down!" I cry out, as my feet graze the surface of a lake and create a spray of foam, and then the wind chills my legs as the water seeps through my robe. "I didn't ask for this! If you let go of me even for one second at this speed, I'll die! I don't have the strength to decelerate myself that fast!"

"Astro, I wouldn't do this if I wanted to endanger you. I may have gone a bit overboard though… How about this?"

After saying these words the lake disappears from view, the following disorientation not helping my mental state in the slightest. As I look around me, I realize we are much higher in the air, the lake far below us. It seems to shine like metal from the sky's reflection. Luckily, in spite of the additional danger of our increased elevation, Shadow has slowed down our rate of flight significantly. Instead we are slowly gliding across the landscape, the strong wind replaced by a gentle breeze.

With the threat of imminent death possibly averted, I have slightly more space in my head to evaluate the situation. Or, at the very least, question our reason for being here.

"Can you perhaps explain why you flew us extremely high into the air, and then brought us several kilometers away from the village?"

Shadow replies: "I, perhaps wrongly, assumed that flight would be a good way to help with whatever is plaguing your mind. Most people tend to enjoy flight."

"I'm bloody sure they do! When it's consensual, expected, and there's some reasonable assurances that they will come out of it alive. And that's assuming they're not afraid of heights."

Shadow chuckles in a manner that could be interpreted in many different ways. "I am sorry. Even after all of those years this is still something I occasionally fumble with, human interaction is more Fire's thing. I have trouble reading people without… getting into their head. But this is alright now, this slow flight, right?"

I sigh. I should have expected this. I got too competitive in that magical game of catch, and made myself seem like someone I'm not.

"I guess it's okay for the trip back."

Shadow turns our direction of flight, and we begin our trip back toward the village, just high enough to avoid attracting attention from unknown observers below.

Roughly an hour later, Shadow brings us down in the clearing where we first began our game of magical chess. I finally let go of Shadow's hand and feel relieved as I can stand with two feet on solid ground… and I can finally rest my arm.

Shadow says: "There is one last thing I must try before we return, I thought of it on the way back. In the world I come from my power is limited by the… gods. Gods would be the best term for them. Here though, I think that those limitations are not in effect. I advise you to step back a bit, I don't know what this will do."

I oblige, turn around, and walk a good ten meters away from Shadow, having learned the hard way at least some of what she is capable of.

Shadow closes her eyes and holds up her right arm. At first, the light around her hand seems to become increasingly bent and distorted, but then it becomes clear it's not just a trick of the light, or any sort of illusion magic whatsoever. No, this distortion of her hand is something… different. With each passing moment, the hand seems to gain another layer of optical distortion which is, somehow, not _that_ at all. It's like perceiving each detail of it's form requires the same mental amount of strain as remembering what I ate for breakfast yesterday at 4am in the morning. The most I can make out of it, is that the very edge of the distortion-which-isn't still vaguely resembles Shadow's hand.

"Aha!" Shadow says. She pulls at the air, and a gap opens up in front of her that is just as horrifyingly indescribable as the distorted hand which was there before. The gap seems to push away everything: light, air, sound… even my ability to perceive its existence. Just looking at it makes me feel like there's an intense pressure inside my head. Then my mind unfreezes, from what frozen state I don't know. Shadow leans against the gap and a hand materializes into existence, as if it never existed before, even though I insist to myself that that hand is a part of Shadow's body and was always there all along. And whatever existential gap was there before… suddenly isn't.

The fading of Shadow's hand into existence is accompanied by a growing lightness in my head, and I become aware of the great amount of power that was used in the past few hours. How easily that power can be underestimated. I should have known better than to use my magic so frivolously. What was I thinking? I could easily die as the magic consumed me, or worse… hurt someone else later. How many wizards have I met on the battlefield which were so emboldened? How many people have died in those battles? How many of my friends? I still remember their faces. I still remember the ways in which each one of them died. I still remember the times we spent together, those pompous little pieces of…

Oh Jeb, I remember _everything_!

I feel a growing, splitting headache, as waves upon waves of memories of my past flood into my mind, from improvised introductions, to countless overused jokes with misplaced punchlines, to ad-hoc escape attempts from villains with ambiguous mental health issues. The world starts to dim and tilt back and forth.

"Are you alright, Astro?"

Shadow runs up to me and holds onto my arm just as the world decides to tilt itself upside down. The world can do whatever it wants for all I care. I knew it never cared about me anyway. My body is probably finally failing, my life flashing before my eyes like straight out of some cliche amateur pulp fiction novel. Because I selfishly used magic to indulge myself, and went too far. It's an insult to all my friends I could have saved with the same magic. In all these years, in spite of all the heart-wrenching lessons I've learned, have I really learned anything? It's as if I wished my friends dead out of spite. At least the rogue wizards I fought against on the battlefield had the courage to kill their enemies directly...

I wince as I prepare from the end, but rather than fade to black, the world stops rotating. I open my eyes and see Shadow still holding my arms, a concerned look in her eyes.

She asks again: "Are you alright, Astro?"

I blink a few times. "In all honesty? No, I am not okay. My entire life flashed before my eyes, all because of some blatantly irresponsible overuse of magic."

All confidence had disappeared from Shadow's voice. "I really screwed up, didn't I? We should have stopped at the dodgeball."

I sigh, feeling yet more guilt for being a bit too harsh with criticism for Shadow which was partly meant for myself. I guess if I could wield such powerful magic without consequences, I might indulge in it more freely, too. "I guess it's a lesson learned, then. For both of us."

Shadow says: "I really am sorry. I just… didn't know that that would happen. In my world I'm only allowed to use some extent of my powers, which is extended if I need to apprehend people who break the gods' rules but this… I have never done this before."

"I can't say I've seen anything like that before, either. Even thinking about what it looked like makes my head hurt. Do you have any idea what it was?"

Shadow helps me stand up completely again. "I do have a pretty good idea. Considering that the origin of my power, the reason for my successful ascension, is Void magic, I probably tore a hole into the fabric of reality. What you experienced was your brain trying to comprehend something it wasn't meant to comprehend, my - as cliché that term might be - true form does that to people."

"Yeah, that seems fitting, given the affect it's seemed to have on my mind!" I grip my temper by the scruff of its neck. "I certainly hope it's not permanent, no offense, I still forgive you and all that."

Shadow flashes a smile. "It's not permanent, I only eat minds that I want to eat."

"Ah, well, that's a relief, then," I grimace internally, mentally noting another reason not to get on Shadow's bad side. "I feel good enough to walk at this point. It's about time I returned to the village to find out what Kay and the others have been up to."


	26. Chapter 25: Completely Routine Covert Op

If I think hard enough, there probably was a time in my technically childhood years when I wanted to be a detective. I can see the appeal. One part stealthy information-gathering, one part diplomacy, and at the end you get to catch the bad guy, assuming things go according to plan.

In spite of me being involved, and my personal doubts of the external origins of Amanda's nightmare, I'd say things went according to plan. It's a rather satisfying feeling.

While Warnado did some magical reconnaissance, I discreetly tracked down a woman unrelated to our group with sufficient magical knowledge to assist my efforts in acquiring a device that can detect magic from a distance. It took quite a few favors and a few semi-truthful promises to get the transaction through, and the device was technically a loan, but I doubted we would be in this village long for that to be an issue and in either case it could be dealt with.

Warnado and I then met up in a dark cellar at a predetermined time to complete the transaction. The dealer was a tall, old man in a trenchcoat with a relatively congenial demeanor in spite of the relatively threatening bodyguard which stood beside him. The detector he showed us didn't look like much, but then again I'm not sure what I expected. It came as two pieces. The wizardry detecting part was round and flat and glowed green, while the second part was a tin case with a small rectangular opening where light was supposed to shine through when the green detector thingy sensed magic on the other side.

With Warnado's help, and the dealer's permission, we tested the detector and verified it could detect Warnado's magic, and compensated the dealer with some of Warnado's money and a spicy burrito. Thus, the transaction was completed and the first stage of our plan came to a conclusion.

The next step was to discreetly plant the detector. Warnado stuffed the detector and receiver under his conveniently thick and identity-concealing cloak under the cover of the dark cellar where our transaction occurred, and we then returned to the inn, pretending to act like we had another good reason to be there. At this point, it was mid-afternoon in the village, so the risk of our actions being detected by others in our group was low, but on the other hand we hadn't ruled out the possibility of an external spy.

We headed upstairs and put the detector underneath Amanda's bed, and quickly realized hiding the detector would not be as easy as we thought. Even during the day, the detector's green glow was easily visible on the floor around the bed. Warnado had a spark of inspiration and conjured up a bunch of napkins to cover the detector, but unfortunately they were the thin paper kind and easily slid off.

"Maybe we should buy some paint instead," I said. I rubbed my forehead, partly in frustration, but in part because I was getting another headache.

"No," Warnado said, determined. "I believe in the potential of these napkins. With enough napkins, we can accomplish anything."

Warnado then conjured an entire pile of napkins as tall as a small dog.

"Help me tie these napkins together. We're going to make a thicker napkin to cover the detector."

"Couldn't we just purchase a blanket?" I offered. "Or hide the detector under the mattress instead? Anything that doesn't involve sitting in Amanda's room for several hours and potentially jeopardizing our entire plan?" I usually wasn't the voice of reason, but I didn't like the idea of all of my carefully orchestrated trade deals turning out for nothing.

"If the village vendor is a spy, that plan could backfire. Besides, if I saw a pile of napkins under a bed I'd be inclined to leave it alone. And don't worry about the timing. I've been in situations like this before, and if I had to give a rough estimate, I'd say our napkin operation will take about 36 minutes."

I began to wonder what sort of past situations Warnado could possibly have been involved in that would require napkin-based textile production estimates, and I began to suspect his past was a bit darker than his innocent personality had led me to believe. Then again, this _was_ Warnado.

"In that case, how would you like me to tie the napkins?" I asked.

Fast-forward a little over a half hour later, and the glowing green detector thingy was encased in a blanket made of napkins that was thick enough to hide its green glow. Thanks to Warnado's handiwork it actually looked like an ordinary blanket, albeit an old and tattered one, once it was hidden under the bed. At this point it was just a matter of testing the detector's range and deciding what to do if the dream weaver showed up.


	27. Chapter 26: Return of the Dreamweaver

It's been several days since I started walking through this forest. I'm not exactly sure what the nature of my journey is, but if this map I'm holding is correct, my destination is not far from here.

To be honest, I'm not sure how I convinced myself to go on this silly quest. Yes, the person who gave me the map claimed to be a distant relative of a close friend. Yes, the rumors of unclaimed surface gold deposits scattered throughout this forest were plausible, and the less well-known rumor that a group of hostile, self-replicating golems were recently eradicated from this region must be true, assuming they even existed at all. But my exact destination is unclear. The distant relative claimed at one point that they needed me to pick up something to help return a favor, but at another point they contradicted themself and claimed it was some sort spiritual journey. In either case I can't fathom what was so compelling about it that made me accept the map and follow it, let alone why I would trust someone who was basically a stranger. Perhaps I was so tired of the status quo of living in the village that I finally needed an adventure. After all, retirement can get a bit dull at times. Who would have thought that I, Astro, of all people, would retire? And in Nexus of all places?

I appreciate a bit the humor of my situation, roll up the map, and put it in one of my pockets. I already have a good sense of direction thanks to the angle of the sun, and my destination is getting very close so the map will most likely just distract me.

Many trees later and my destination still isn't in sight, but then I stop walking and stand still when I realize there is a cloaked figure standing among the trees ahead of me.

As I tally up the possibilities, I realize I am very unprepared for this situation. It's been ages since I've used magic in any capacity, and my sword-fighting skills are amateur at best at this point. If the cloaked stranger has any malicious intent, it is unlikely I will be able to defend myself.

I take out my map and compass and walk sideways. But as I look back toward the cloaked stranger, I realize they are following me.

What do I do? Do I attempt to run? Or do I confront them and hope they are peaceful?

Before I can make my decision, the cloaked figure raises their arm slowly. A shockwave spreads out from their hand in a cone shape, distorting the trees as it passes by. It moves so fast that I couldn't possibly outrun it. I watch as the trees in front of me bend and twist like ripples in a lake, and then the shockwave passes through me. I feel myself pulled like a clump of magnetic molten wax toward the cloaked figure until I am standing right in front of them.

The cloaked figure stares at me, yet their face is undefined. They raise their arm once more, and a great, gaping hole appears between us. It is painful to look at, but I am powerless to look away. There is such a profound nothingness to the hole that even my thoughts seem to disappear inside of it, and the more I comprehend its darkness, the bigger the hole seems to be, until my entire self seems to be swallowed up inside of it...

I wake with a start as I hear a scream. Startled, I sit up quickly, and then clasp my head in pain as the memory of that hole in existence continues to throb inside of me. There is a weak light coming from between the curtains of the window of the inn room. I open the curtains. It's early morning.

I open the door and try to investigate the source of the scream. For a second the memory of the nightmare lingers, and I almost convince myself that I'm retired from magic and shouldn't get involved in dangerous situations like this, but then I remember that was just a dream.

I soon find a half-open door with a light and voices coming from inside. I open it, and see Destiny, Kay, and Warnado staring at Amanda laying in bed. From the looks of it, Amanda seems completely beside herself, almost as if she is paralyzed by fear. Destiny has a weird look on her face, a mix of fear with something ill-defined. Warnado is keeping the room lit with an ethereal flame, while Kay stands just beside Amanda, with a purposeful pose that suggests he's asking most of the questions.

"I walked in, and his… his eyes... were gleaming like moonlight," Destiny said, her voice stuttering. "And he was touching her head."

"What's going on here?" I ask. "Another nightmare?"

"It seems like it," Kay says, a look of realization in his face which suggests he no longer doubts Amanda's nightmare was caused by someone else. Seeing the look of pure fear in Amanda's eyes, I too find it hard to dismiss it as a coincidence.

"I hated that guy from the start. He only ever cared about himself and getting back to his dumb farm. Now we know that's all pigshit! He's been using us this whole time!" Destiny continues. Her eyes are red and watery and her teeth are bared in feral manner. A pitiable sight; a sight whose words are hard to believe.

"You're entitled to your opinion of Fristad's personality, but let's focus on the facts at hand," Kay says, teeth gritted, obviously struggling not to immediately indulge his own prejudices. "Was Fristad an enderman when this was happening?"

She seems to realise she's losing Kay. Her features solidify, her voice levels itself: "He was human."

"How long was he in the room?"

"I don't know. He teleported out of the room immediately after I saw him."

"Did he say anything, or was doing anything else unusual?" Warnado asks. "What was he wearing?"

"He didn't say or do anything else. He wasn't wearing any armor, just a shirt with a vest."

"Astro, can you take my place so I can check Fristad's room to see if he left his armor behind?" Warnado asks.

"That's fine," I tell Warnado. I cast a spell which creates an orb of white light hovering near the ceiling. Warnado snuffs out his ethereal fire and walks out of the room. I don't think I've seen him cast a spell like that before. Is it new? Perhaps his abilities are improving.

"What were you doing before you entered Amanda's room?" Kay asks.

"I don't see why that's any of your business. I wasn't the one harming her," Destiny snaps.

"I'm sorry, I'm not trying to accuse you of anything," Kay says. "I'm just trying to see if there's anything we might have missed that would bring us closer to finding out what Amanda has been dealing with."

"I already told you _Fristad_ did it!" Destiny barks.

"That may be true," Kay begins with strained diplomacy, "but Fristad isn't here, and there are other components to this investigation. Your unwillingness to cooperate doesn't really help your own case for innocence. So, could you please just answer the question?"

Destiny sighs. "If you must know… I was having difficulty sleeping. I heard strange noises coming Amanda's room, so I investigated. That's when I saw Fristad standing next to Amanda while she was screaming in her bed."

"I heard the scream, too," I add. "It woke me up from a nightmare I was having... Listen, I'm not sure if the dreams are related, but I might as well describe mine. It was about a wizard creating a hole in existence that was painful to look at and distorted my consciousness. It's probably linked to a similar reality-distorting spell Shadow created yesterday while we were testing our magic. Maybe it left a magical effect, maybe it just made an impression. Probably not severe, but something to consider going forward."

"First eavesdropping on an entire crowd, then dimensional holes? What kind of magicking wizard _is_ Shadow, exactly?" Kay asks, gesticulating sharply.

"Reality holes, not dimensional holes," I correct Kay. "And apparently a very competent one. I'll tell you and Warnado more about it later. I'll let you wrap up your questions so we all can let Amanda get some rest."

"I don't think I'll be able to get back to sleep any time soon," Amanda admits, her voice weak.

Warnado returns into the room. "Fristad is asleep, or at least he's in bed right now," he says. "He's probably not wearing any armor. I saw his usual black plated armor on the floor."

Warnado turns to face me. "Thank you, Astro, for holding my spot. I can take it from here."

"I'm actually _a bit_ interested in what happened to Amanda. You know, just a little," I tell him with a warning sarcasm.

Warnado gives me a serious look. "That may be the case, but you simply being here could influence the witnesses."

"You're right," I sighed and splayed my hands. "I should go. Good luck with your investigation. I hope we get to the bottom of this soon."

I leave the room, leaving Warnado to tend to the interview with Amanda and Destiny. The dim light of the inn hallway is oddly calming, with the old creaking wood under my feet and the faint sound of clanging metal and porcelain coming from below, from the late night activity of a few sleepless patrons.

I feel sorry for both of them, Amanda and Destiny. Especially Amanda. I've never seen such a young woman with such a panicked look in her face. Then again, Destiny lost David and that was the firm opposite of pleasant… Uncooperative as she is, she must be hurting so, so much.

But at the same time, could Destiny be the Dreamweaver? Could she have chosen to haunt Amanda because she was jealous of her relationship with Warnado? A relationship Destiny no longer has? To be honest, I don't even know how Warnado and Amanda feel about each other. He never talks about it. Maybe I owe it to myself to find out.

Sometimes I wonder what sick mentality drives people to inflict psychological torture upon someone else. Sometimes I don't need to wonder. I've witnessed many forms of torture. Motivation comes in many forms, both petty and political. Usually both. I still remember how that half-endling freak, Hamish, unravelled Kay's mind strand by strand. How he used me in that torture. How he killed Mini. How he "killed" Linx. How he lured Kay into that trap in the Citadel. Then, all that during Ryan's Revolt...

This Kay hasn't had that happen to him yet. No wonder he's so cheerful. Then again, I may be imposing my emotions on a Kay from an entirely different timeline. It doesn't make the past any easier to bear. I could lose him again…

As I place my hand upon my door, I wince as a painful headache flashes on the left side of my head. An image of the reality-eating hole appears briefly in my mind, clouding my thoughts, before vanishing. I sincerely hope the mental aberrations don't become worse.


	28. Chapter 27: Growing Dissonance

It feels like it's only been five minutes when the light shines stubbornly from the gaps of the inn's curtains into my eyes. How long has it been since I got a decent sleep? More than a week, probably. Ever since the Book has… become part of my life.

Even now, I can feel it watching me. It's not like it was before, when I would hear its voice on occasion, and occasionally the Book would take control of me. No, this is far different. I think it started happening when I inflicted the first nightmare upon Amanda. At one moment, I would be in control, I myself would be inflicting the nightmare upon her in my vain attempt to shake myself free of the Book's influence. At another moment, the Book would take control, guiding every thought, every figment to be woven into Amanda's nightmare. And in between… there were moments where it wasn't really clear which one of us was in control.

The irony is… I want to win Amanda's mind over to our side as much as the Book does. I don't understand why I try so hard to resist it. But somehow I still feel this deep fear that I am losing something important.

I can hear the faint tapping of rain coming from outside. I try to shake off the nervousness and lift myself out of bed. The world around me seems to move oddly slowly in response to my movement. That's definitely sleep deprivation. I really need to do something about it. Maybe I should go to bed earlier? No. That would look too suspicious. It's only been the second night and Destiny has already walked in on me during a nightmare. I'm pretty sure she recognized me. Warnado came into my room, but I think he was just checking up on things.

I walk over the window. I have no more hope sleeping, so there's no point keeping the curtains closed. I open the curtains and crack the window, so the fresh air from the rain can more easily enter the room.

I open the door to the hallway, but hesitate for a moment. I turn around and nervously pick up the black diamond armor from the floor and put it back on piece by piece. The armor is heavy, but feeling its smooth crystal plating against my skin somehow puts my mind at ease.

I walk down the stairs into the common area of the inn. It seems I'm far from the first person from our group to come down here. Steve, Jennifer, and the others… including Amanda… are all sitting at the table eating. The only person that seems to be missing is Fire, that not-quite enderman halfblood. The food smells strange, but it still makes me salivate.

I walk toward the end of the long table where the group is sitting, and try to act natural. I sit myself down beside Astro at the end of the table, with Warnado and Amanda sitting on the other side. It seems there is starting to be a trend in the seating arrangement.

I try to puff myself up a bit to make myself look more confident, and try to hide the overwhelming tiredness that's plagued me these past few days, in case Destiny's knowledge of my actions has spread and is starting to arouse suspicion. It's hard to even look at Amanda. I can already see a hint of hopelessness in her gaze, and I know my work is fair from over. There will be a third nightmare. And a fourth. And I dread to imagine the suffering she will feel because of me.

I try to slam the door closed on that train of thought and focus my attention on Warnado, making my best attempt to pretend to be more hungry than I actually am. Thanks to the Book's help, I'm at least a better liar than I used to be. And better at managing these disturbing and unproductive thoughts.

"Hey Warnado," I call out, in the most awake yet calm voice I can muster. "Do you think you could get me some soup?"

"You didn't like my tacos yesterday?" Warnado asks, slightly offended, one of his odd culinary creations held in his hand, half-eaten. Amanda is eating one as well.

"Well, it's not because I didn't like your tacos yesterday..." I try my best to try and assure Warnado.

_ "Just admit it, his tacos were terrible,"_ the Book tells me.

But I can't find it within myself to hurt his feelings. And for the record, they tasted fine.

"I just smelled the food from the kitchen all the way up on the second stairwell, and I really wanted to try it. But if money is a concern for you, then I completely understand."

I'm starting to miss being able to just grab some cooked pork from the farm storage. Depending on other people for food is tiresome.

"Nah, I get you," Warnado says with apparent camaraderie. "I'll magic you a salad instead."

Warnado makes funny wiggling motions with his fingers, and a strange creation appears in his hands. The bottom is yellow like one of his tacos, and the top is filled with pale plant material and a bunch of other things mixed in which I can't identify, but seem similar to the stuff in Warnado's tacos.

"Taco salad. Darn. Was really hoping for something more Italian," Warnado says. "Did you know Italian is an adjective? Anyway, I can never seem to get the bowl right. I tried to make soup once. Let's just say it didn't end well."

Warnado conjures a fork and hands it and the "taco salad" to me. I accept them graciously.

_ "You do realize this man is not an innocent child?"_ the Book warns me. _ "While you eat the food he gives you, he is watching everything you do, studying every word you tell him. He wants to find every reason he can to incriminate you as the Dreamweaver."_

Well, in that case, he can incriminate me for eating a salad!

Just as I take my second bite, Kay stands up and speaks.

"Ladies and gentlemen, and other sentient beings equally notable, since we are now all gathered here, except for Fire..." Kay glances across the table, perhaps in suspicion. "I propose we meet after breakfast to discuss some important new details of the dream weaver investigation. Since quite a few of you already know about what happened last night, it would be best to set the record straight, and perhaps in the process unveil some information that could move this investigation forward."

"That sounds reasonable enough," Steve remarks, obviously surprised but unwilling to admit he is not up to speed. "If you don't think it will impede your investigation."

Tyron nods along agreeably.

Shadow speaks: "Fire left earlier this morning to attend the Prophet's sermon, to uncover more information. As I've mentioned before, the Prophet's sermons contain symbolism and themes that are difficult to decipher, but have been shown to accurately predict the future. That kind of knowledge is bound to be useful."

"I suppose it can't be helped," Kay says, "We still have you here, which is close enough... aside from the complication that you're one of our most competent magic users, but inadequate suspicions aside, our investigation must continue. It would be unwise for us to delay discussion until Fire gets back, since we don't know when the Dreamweaver will strike next."

Is that what they call me now? Dreamweaver? This is my name? The Book seems amused.

"Any additional comments or objections?" Kay asks.

After a pause for feedback receives no response, Kay makes a final remark.

"Then it's settled, then. We meet after breakfast."

Kay looks at me and studies me closely, very briefly, before sitting down and returning his attention to his mage friend and his soup. Kay must know what I did. He has to. This isn't just a distrust of endermen. There's no other way he would look at me like that given how little time we've spent near each other.


	29. Chapter 28: Burning Suspicions

We meet in one of the inn rooms. With all of us together, it's a bit crowded in here. Tyron looks even bigger than usual. Nobody wants to sit on the bed, so we all stand. Shadow uses some sort of magic to stop sound from coming in and out of the room. The resulting quiet is so pervasive that I can hear my breath and heartbeat, as well as the breaths of others. Except for Shadow.

Somehow I fear it, this absolute silence. The guilt of my invasion of Amanda's dreams is just as audible to everyone around me as my own breath. But there's no way that could be possible. I have to have faith that my lies and everyone else's ignorance will protect me.

Kay clears his throat and prepares to speak, his demeanor taking on a sense of purpose which is at once serious, but in a way almost seems theatrical, like an actor putting on a pose for one of his favorite plays.

"Right, as most of you know," Kay begins, his voice taking on a different quality that might be described as intimidating, "One night ago, Amanda had a nightmare, whose cause was unknown but given the circumstances at the time seemed like it could have just been caused by stress from the last few days or any number of personal reasons. However, Warnado was convinced that the nightmare was intentionally induced by an unknown malicious actor, a 'Dreamweaver,' if you like, and so our investigation began."

Even my first nightmare did not go unnoticed? Thanks to just a hunch from Warnado? I am shocked, perhaps even afraid. If Kay's story develops any further than this, I could be found out quickly. I have to find some way to draw attention away from myself.

The Book's consciousness brushes up against mine.

Do not worry, Fristad. Kay cannot prove what you did even if he wanted to. And he is not the type of person to hurl weak accusations. He values his image too much. Surely you can see it? The way he conducts himself with such importance, the manner in which he speaks? His accent now wavers between one of a well-to-do merchant and a bestial peasant. One of them is not real. This is a man whose secrets could rival our own.

I am now perhaps as curious of Kay as Kay is about me. But it hardly matters, because unlike him, one of my secrets is already found out. The question which remains is whether Kay will trace it back to me.

Kay continues, "Warnado and I can now confirm that her nightmares have been supernaturally induced. This probably means it's a threat to the group-"

"Excuse me," Steve says, leaning back and raising a hand, eyes squinted. Kay stops and gestures to him. "Sorry, just looking for a bit of clarification here: when you say the origin of the nightmares is 'supernatural,' what exactly does that mean? Ghosts? Monsters? Immortal beings? Just trying to get a sense of what level of threat we're dealing with, in case we need to prepare."

"I can't reveal much, but I will say that at this point it's uncertain who or what the Dreamweaver could be. The Dreamweaver very well could be some sort of outside threat, human or otherwise, or they could be hiding among us. It's all up in the air at this point. Certainly not the sort of thing we could reasonably prepare for given-"

Destiny, the woman who saw me last night, steps forward, eyes ablaze. I try hard not to flinch.

"Up in the air?" Destiny mocks. "Up in the air! Really? Are those ears real or are they just for show?! I already told you it was Fristad!"

Destiny points her finger straight toward me.

"I understand you may feel very passionately about this investigation," Kay responds, perhaps his calmness as a result of cautious restraint. His voice has started to take on a more refined quality again. "But let's not jump to conclusions here."

"I saw it with my own eyes," Destiny says. "Fristad was there, right in front of Amanda. I saw his eyes glow. And I heard Amanda scream as Fristad teleported away. You heard it, too, Kay! Don't deny it, just because of some pretense of an 'objective' investigation!"

I feel a pang of guilt as I remember Amanda's face last night. Part of me wants to step forward and admit what I've done. Destiny shouldn't have to experience any more pain than she already has.

Somehow, that guilt seems to push through the carefully guarded cages of my mind. I find myself stepping forward, looking Destiny in the eye. This is it. Everyone is here. I can finally admit the secret I've been forced to hold all this time. And I can bring this investigation to an end.

"I am sorry, Destiny," I tell her. "I know you've been through a lot recently. And I can't change the way you feel about me. But the truth is… I want just as much for the Dreamweaver to be brought to justice as you do. I wish I could have been there to do something about it but I wasn't there."

"Don't mock me," Destiny growls. The air around her arm begins to bend and warp, and a flame flashes to life in the palm of her hand.

"Destiny, don't!" Jennifer steps in front of Destiny and pins her arm down. The flame now covers her hand and licks her wrist. Destiny's eyes bore into mine with hatred.

I feel a hint of smug pleasure coming from the Book, and I realize what words I actually said. I didn't tell her the truth. I lied. I made her emotional instability into my shield, damaging her credibility. The Book took my sincere guilt for Destiny and redirected it, into the most convincing and hurtful lie I've ever told.

Almost everyone is looking at Destiny, mostly with sympathy.

The flame in Destiny's hand snuffs out into a cloud of rising black smoke. Destiny looks down. Jennifer lets go of her hand.

"I promise you, Destiny, whoever the Dreamweaver is, I will see to it personally that they are brought to justice," Kay assures Destiny in guarded tones. "If there is anyone else who wishes to share their thoughts on the Dreamweaver, they are free to do so now, or alternatively we can discuss it later in private."

Tyron steps forward. "I have something to say. I hope we can all take it to heart. As this investigation continues, we are all going to have our own personal opinions about what happened. Tensions are going to rise. People are not going to trust each other as much as they used to. But let's remember that up to this point, we have all been a team. We escaped the Tower together. Well, that's excluding Fire and Shadow but half of you can vouch for his being trustworthy and he can vouch for Shadow. Anyways, what I'm trying to say is… let's not let our suspicions destroy what we have here."

Steve, Jennifer and a few others nod along in agreement.

"Tyron is right," Kay concurs, "While none of us asked to be in this situation, this little group we've formed does have its benefits. Especially given the strange world we've all found ourselves in it's best if we hold together. Anyone else have anything to say?"

Amanda steps forward. "I just want to say, as the person who was actually attacked last night, I support this investigation. I dread the thought of having another one of those terrifying nightmares, but if we make a rash decision and accuse the wrong person, it could make things worse in the long run."

Hearing Amanda suddenly become the voice of reason makes me feel even more guilty for what I've done to her. Part of me even wonders if my influence over her is, subconsciously, starting to take hold. That would be even worse.

"Coming from you that means a lot," Warnado says. "I know how much the dreams have been affecting you. Try not to keep it to yourself. We're all here for you. Same goes for you, Destiny. Like Tyron said, we're all a team."

Kay nods. "Well said, Warnado. Anything else anyone would like to add?"

Kay pauses for a moment. When no one responds, he continues to speak.

"Well, in that case, there are a few more things you should know," Kay says. "Some of you may have heard from Warnado earlier that he suspects the Dreamweaver to be a magic user. Unfortunately we cannot confirm whether this is true or false. We are weighing all possibilities. However, if any of you have insight into the abilities of one of the members of our group, magical or otherwise, please feel free to reach out. Also appreciated are any leads on unusual activity or strange new visitors in or around the village. Remember that the Dreamweaver could be anyone, but like Tyron said let's not let our suspicions get the best of us."

With Kay's final words, the group disperses, and Shadow lifts the ward of silence from the tiny inn room.


	30. Chapter 29: The Forged Champion

A thin rain was falling, not nearly enough to create any noticable amount of wetness in clothes but enough to feel it on your skin, or scales in Fire's case. Fire was running down the cobbled road leading to the Prophet's hill. He was still wearing his black firesteel armor, save for the helmet, which was attached to a small hook at his waist. He had also taken a drop of the potion he had brewed before he departed to his own world, sharpened senses could never hurt when listening to the Prophet.

The road was far from empty, Fire passed several caravans and even more people going on foot, occasionally one who rode on a horse. After a solid hour of running the forest that housed the hill came into view, colossal dark oak trees denied any looks from outside. As Fire got close he could hear the raindrops drumming on the leaves pleasantly. He also heard that the Prophet had already started speaking, which was no surprise since he seemed to only rarely interrupt his sermon in order to eat or sleep.

Fire slowed down as he came close to the congregation, he didn't want to draw any more attention than his tall armored form mandated already. At this point he was a somewhat familiar face among the followers but they still gave him a large amount of space, if out of respect or fear he didn't know.

The congregation mostly consisted of humans but occasionally other creatures could be seen in the crowd, including endermen who seemingly were not affiliated with the Entity, which made sense since most other worlds had an End of their own.

The Prophet currently was again delivering various disconnected tales or wisdoms, at this point the fundamental patterns had become obvious: sleep, twilight, growth. Now the more complex patterns were a different story, Fire had started to grasp some of them but he would need to listen a bit more to be able to name them. Shadow had a much deeper understanding due to her ability to just place a projection at the hill and always hear everything the Prophet said, taking that the projection remained undisturbed. Fire looked around to see if he could spot it, after a few seconds he did, this time it had taken the form of a sparrow in the trees, only that instead of its normal colors it was black, white and red. Shadow wasn't limited by those colors naturally but she did like to mess with perceptive people.

The sermon now shifted from tales to concrete prophecies. "The losses of the past will be repeated in the future!", "The one captivated by ancient scriptures shall never be the same!", "When under the yoke of the Growing One, great strengths are unleashed.", he then stopped for a moment, as if he had just gotten a new vision, "The Forged Champion of light and darkness is near!"

The crowd broke out into murmurs, the Champion was something the Prophet talked about occasionally, seemingly it was someone from another world who would leave a lasting impact on Nexus, not alone but with several others. What surprised Fire was that the Prophet had specifically said the "Forged Champion", the Forged was another figure or perhaps an entire people that occasionally appeared in the Prophet's sermons. When Fire had asked another attendee about it he was told that the first mention of the Forged was something akin to "mortal gods have taken two kinds and forged them into a greater one". Up until now those were two completely different entities but all of a sudden they were one and the same? Granted, the same gods that forged those two kinds were also those who would send the Champion but nothing was ever said about the nature of that Champion. Something about the Forged also seemed awfully familiar to Fire…

Before he was able to finish the thought he noticed that suddenly an increasing number of people were looking at him. Just shortly before one of them spoke, Fire himself realized the implications.

"The Champion is among us!" A man dressed like a farmer screamed while pointing at Fire.

Soon many others joined in with similar cries. Fire didn't even attempt to silence or rebuff the congregation, he had enough experience with cults that he knew that it would be pointless. Instead he just stood there and thought about his best course of action. The Forged seemed to be the Mencur-Besh, Fire had suspected this much before but now it was more or less confirmed by the fact that the congregation recognized him as Forged. The one thing that was still a little obscure was that he also was the "Champion of light and darkness", sure he was a competent leader, sure he had done a lot of things that widely varied in their morality, but a Champion? Fire was quite sure that he did not fit the heroic knight-in-shining-armor archetype that prophecies of that kind entailed.

"Silence!" commanded a previously unheard voice, "Bring the Champion to me!" It was a husky and dry voice, but it sounded quite pained. It wasn't used to speaking authoritatively.

Fire started moving and the crowd parted before him, giving him even more distance than before. He reached the foot of the hill, though the front side was too steep to climb, almost like a cliff, so he went around and ascended. Meanwhile the Prophet continued his usual preaching. The origin of the voice clearly had been Steve, the guardian that was always at the Prophet's side. He met Fire a few paces down the hill and signalled that he wanted to speak to him.

Steve was a man in a tattered leather cuirass and brown cloak over a turquoise shirt. Face stubbled, perhaps shaved a few days before and not since. His eyes were bloodshot. He was jerky - his whole appearance suggested a man acutely aware of the situation but who wanted to be able to forget about it and focus on something much more important.

"So, you look enough like what he described," He was looking at Fire's armour, too preoccupied to look him in the face. "I think the other one mentioned you as well. What's your name?"

"I'm Fire, my origin lines up with the prophecy but the Champion bit is news to me."

"Yes, sorry about that." He was tapping his foot and he started looking at the tip of his boot as it moved up and down. "It's all rather sudden and inopportune, I know."

Fire said: "I honestly was looking for something that would allow me to investigate further into what exactly this world is and what the Entity had to do with it. I already returned home and came back so I'm not going anywhere anytime soon."

He rubbed his chin. "So, how much am I going to have to tell you?" A pause, but before Fire could respond he broke back in: "You know the Entity exists. You know we're in Nexus. You know the Entity had something to do with it. That it's imprisoning people at the - wait, were you involved with that breakout a few days ago? Sorry I couldn't make it, the Prophet had need of me and I'm not the best equipped for open confrontation at the present moment."

"I was not personally involved in the breakout. I was at the Tower though. I managed to earn my permission to leave through a small exchange of information with the Ender. I do know the people who started the breakout though."

"Ah, was it the General? The one with one eye if that's happened yet? Also, information exchange?"

"I explained to the Ender how they can temporarily open the tunnels to other worlds, mostly in order to get their scouts back. The methods I described are vastly inefficient and impractical though. In turn she let me look at the atlas of worlds they mapped out, there were also some other crumbs of information she let slip."

"Inefficient...?" He massaged his forehead. "By the Gods, do you even realize what you've done? The Entity has a whole team of engineers and magi working on this stuff, they're probably working on refining your 'inefficient' methods as we speak!"

Fire sighed. Context once again had proven to be important. "They already know how to establish permanent portals, what I told them allows them to get one person through an unprepared tunnel at a time, maybe two. From the talks I heard exploration has become a goal of lower importance, they have already gotten quite far out and any further out the tools they use to locate tunnels will fail since they rely on energy flow. I was talking to their head of _military_, not their head of _science_. That one was probably busy interrogating another captive." Fire said without only minimal changes in his voice despite his slight annoyance. "Besides, the conversation with the Ender and the maps I saw allowed me to travel to my home world, on the way I made some interesting discoveries, it also allowed me to bring a person of extraordinary power into Nexus who can assist us."

"Exploration? As a matter of lower importance? Interesting… and worrisome, supposing it's true. But never mind that. The Prophet never lies. I am most interested in this recruit of yours. The Prophet spoke of many others who would assist you in your mission. I've guarded him for many years and he's always been a tad vague about that. Perhaps as we learn more about these individuals, it will shed light on those parts of the prophecy."

"The one I brought with me is my sister, a powerful mage, probably even more so in Nexus since in our home world her powers are restricted by our gods." Fire paused, then pointed off in the direction of the road. "I believe we are getting company, something just teleported in… Multiple in fact… armored… advancing quickly. I better get out of sight."

With those words Fire ran down the hill and hid in a bush that allowed him to both remain hidden and get a good view over who exactly it was that just arrived, he did have a hunch. Steve was gone, the Prophet with him.

It turned out that hunch was correct, the Ender and a squadron of elite endermen had entered the clearing with the hill. Fire had no real reason to hide but it was better for him to stay under the radar for now. Without a word they spread out and began looking through the crowd, didn't take much to figure out who they were looking for, they were still hunting the escapees. As one of them drew near, Fire's heartbeat stopped, not out of fear but voluntarily in order to avoid detection, he was not spotted and the enderman moved on just when Fire felt a bit of dizziness coming on.

At this point the congregation was only a hand's breadth away from mass panic, it seemed that the Entity's minions had never been to this place before, especially not someone as important the Ender, her reputation preceded her. After another signal from her, the endermen started questioning selected members of the congregation. Speaking in the tongue understood by humans seemed difficult or at least unfamiliar for them, in slow, simple sentences they asked incessantly if anyone had seen any of the escapees. After some time, they finally found someone who had, if only briefly. Luckily the villagers they had sat in the carriage with weren't present, otherwise the others would be in serious trouble.

The Ender seemed not exactly content with this small scrap of information but it they couldn't get anything more out of the congregation, she spoke up: "Our work here is done for now. If anyone gets caught harboring or in any other way assisting the escapees there will be deaths. Information regarding their whereabouts will be handsomely rewarded."

After those words the squadron assumed formation and teleported away with more force than needed, leaving scorched grass where they stood. Fire remained in his bush until he could be absolutely sure that they had in fact not teleported to a nearby location. He then left his hiding place and returned to the hill, where he found a very worried Steve. The Prophet was back to speaking as if nothing had happened.


	31. Chapter 33: The Start of a Plan

As Fire returned to the top of the hill, the voices of the congregation began swelling up again, this time in fear and anger. Those two emotions were frequently found together, not quite enough to be considered two sides of the same coin but two coins of the same metaphorical currency. Fire could hear some cries for protection, other cries for revolution. Fire had only rarely seen so many people in this kind of emotional turmoil before, partially because on the server there weren't that many opportunities for so many different people to gather in one spot but also partially because everyone on the server, even the NPCs to some extent, had at least a small amount of emotional distance to potentially life-threatening situations.

Even the Prophet himself had stopped preaching and was now looking across the masses with his white eyes, Steve stood right beside him. As Fire approached, Steve looked at him with something Fire believed to be expectation in his eyes. It only made sense, he was the Champion of the prophecy after all, Steve wanted him to do something to calm the congregation down. Perhaps Fire could do more than that.

He thought about what he would say, naturally he could understand why some of the people wanted a revolution against the Entity and in fact Fire himself was starting to think that confrontation was becoming an inevitability. As it stood, the congregation was no match for the Entity's forces, even if Fire personally equipped and trained each and every one of them, the numbers were simply against them. For now he decided that he wouldn't commit to any specific course of action but he saw that he needed to unite the people in Nexus under some common cause. This would help him gather information about what the Entity was actually doing, once he knew that he would decide which path to take.

Fire was used to leading, having been in charge of various groups over the course of his long life, even before he joined the server he had always been someone to quickly formulate a plan and make sure everyone followed through. On the server this had manifested in his indirect leadership of the Mencur-Besh in their early days before their collective became autonomous. Another powerful position he had held for a few hundred years was the guard captain of Rockhaven, responsible of all military operations there. He had also commanded many armies, though he was also no stranger to defeat, sometimes plainly due to his own mistakes, over time he had learned from them. Now would be the time to put his leadership to the test, the task was familiar but the stakes were severely raised.

He stepped past Steve and the Prophet, then began speaking in a loud voice: "We once were people of many different worlds, now with no way back we are people of Nexus. I heard your cries for revenge, I heard them not only from those gathered here but also those I met on my travels."

The crowd went quiet. Fire continued: "But it would be unwise to blindly charge the Tower in hopes of taking down some of their soldiers, it would even be unwise to attempt to kill their officers. In truth, as we are here we have no way to take this world as our own. We may have one in the future but for that to happen we will have to work together. I know that it might be hard trusting people you don't know, who even may be from a different world or from a different species. But enough about differences, there are things that unite us as well, no matter where we are from. Who of you here doesn't have a roof to sleep under or certainty that there will be a meal when you are hungry?"

About half of the congregation started making themselves known, gradually a large part of the rest joined in as well as they thought about their situations.

Fire called out: "That will be our first concern then, not war, not revenge! Survival is what we need to worry about! I may not be able to provide for all of your needs but I can do something better, I can help you do it yourself!"

At this point the entire crowd was cheering, Steve threw Fire an approving nod.

Fire was not done yet though. "In some time I will be here again, only then with knowledge of a place that will eventually safely house everyone here many times over. I will be honest with you, it will not be easy to make it a reality but I know that we will make it!"

After those words Fire turned around, walked back a few paces, out of the sight of the congregation. He took a deep breath, it had been a long time since he last had to deliver a rousing speech and it had been difficult to not completely crush the congregation with the harsh reality that he knew they were going to face. Building an independent shelter for this many people would prove difficult but it was necessary to at least have some amount of people he could rely on.

Fire was almost immediately approached by Steve. "Well then, it seems the prophecies hold some truth after all, at least in the respect that you know how to lead. What further plans do you have? What is this place you talked about?"

Fire sat down on a small boulder, then explained: "On the map the Ender showed me I noticed that there is a mountainous region some distance from here, according to the maps there are expansive caves within that reach deep underground, they haven't explored them and it's unlikely that they ever will. It'll be safer than anywhere on the surface once we clear them out. We're protected from the elements, hidden from sight and we're saving on construction work. As for plans… I don't particularly know yet, I simply don't know enough about the Entity or its plans to choose a course of action. Depending on that it's entirely possible that we go to war but also that we find a diplomatic solution, which admittedly is less likely."

Steve said: "So, you'll lead the congregation into the mountains? As you said, it's risky but I fear that we do need a solid following and a place to keep refugees safe."

Fire stood up and turned to go. "I'll be leaving now, I still need to take care of some things before I return. Stay safe."

Steve gave Fire a short wave, then turned back to the Prophet, who had meanwhile resumed his prophesying, currently about growth if Fire wasn't mistaken.

Fire stepped out of the forest, there were no more leaves above him to shield him from the rain. Judging by the darkening clouds it would only become heavier, Fire decided to hurry up since running on soaked dirt roads made it easy to slip, even for him. He reached into a small pouch he was carrying, it was significantly bigger on the inside than it was on the outside, he had enchanted it himself. Fire fished out a flask with a sky-blue potion inside. He drank about a quarter of the flasks content and immediately his legs felt a little lighter. The speed potion would allow him to move more quickly than normally while also removing the strain on his circulatory system that would come if he tried to move at that speed without the potion. Fire started sprinting rapidly down the road towards the village at a speed that would make most people pray for their dear lives.

The journey back to the village was uneventful save for having to leap over a very startled carriage driver and his carriage. Once the village was in clear sight Fire slowed down again. At this point the rain had progressed from the drizzle it had been before to a solid downpour, the street was starting to get wet and slippery. Fire once again searched his pouch for a potion, this time it was almost perfectly clear and the flask was tiny compared to the speed potion. After drinking the potion Fire felt a pull in his chest in the direction of the village. If everything had gone according to plan, this pull would lead Fire to the counterpart of the potion he had just imbibed, provided that he had been trusted.

He reached the village and walked slowly to be able to follow the pull more accurately. The streets were largely empty, nobody wanted to go outside with the pouring rain, Fire could also hear distant thunder and see lightning far off on the horizon. There was one hell of a thunderstorm coming.

The pull directed Fire through the streets, it got significantly stronger once he reached what one could call the richer part of the village, it consisted of a handful of bigger and better-built houses, Fire was directed to one of them by the pull. As he stood before the door, the pull stopped, this told Fire that he was within very close proximity of the potion's counterpart. He knocked on the door. A man of middle age opened the door, Fire knelt down in order for the man to be able to see his face.

The man asked: "What do you want?"

Fire plainly replied: "I'm looking for Lucy."

The man seemed to be surprised. "What do you want with our maid?"

"I'm taking her with me."

Instead of answering Fire, the man yelled back into the house: "Linda, one of those scaly things showed up. It wants to take Lucy!"

Fire said nothing and waited for a reaction from the woman who seemed to be the man's wife. Instead of replying, the woman came storming around the corner, a heavy crossbow in hands. She was aiming it at Fire but she was visibly shaking and the look on her face was everything but confident.

She said: "Leave. Now."

Fire was neither in the mood for long discussions nor for crossbow bolts. "Let's make this easier on everyone involved. Just call her."

Instead of calling for anyone, Linda pulled the trigger on her crossbow. Fire's sigh gradually slowed down in his own ears as the world around him almost came to a stop. Fire was not in the mood for displays of power either but what had to be done had to be done.

The crossbow Linda was using was old and improperly maintained, the bow limb had lost most of its elasticity over time, probably due to being stored while armed. This resulted in the bolt only being propelled with a fraction of the force of what should have been. On top of that, Fire also saw that the bolt itself was wooden and only tipped with copper, probably due to iron not being available. Even a direct hit between scales wouldn't do more than slightly puncture Fire's skin, and that was ignoring the fact that Fire was wearing armor. Yet Fire still decided to reach out with his hand and close it around the bolt as it came near, his claws dug into the wood to further slow it down. After catching the bolt time returned to its normal speed again.

Fire's sigh finished.

"I want to see Lucy, are we clear on that?" Fire said.

It took the couple a few moments to process what had happened but it seemed that they got Fire's message. The man then called Lucy's name with a shaky voice.

A few seconds later Fire could hear rapid footsteps coming down stairs, then the blonde maid he had chosen during his pyromancy show appeared behind her employers.

Fire said: "Hello again Lucy. I'd like you to come with me, we have much to discuss."

The man seemed to have mustered up enough courage to raise his voice again: "If you take her with you, who will look after our house? And besides, her contract is still binding."

Fire pointed to Lucy. "Lucy, would you be so kind and give those two the object in your pocket?" Lucy hesitantly reached inside and revealed a cut and polished diamond, the very same one she had found in the satchel Fire had given her. Fire continued: "You can hire as many maids as you want with that gem. As for the contract… I believe we are no longer in a world where there is any authority ensuring the validity of your laws, feel free to walk over to the Tower and discuss the binding nature of your contract with one Marinus Bul, I hear he handles their legal affairs."

With another gesture he signalled Lucy to step outside, she did after a few seconds of hesitation, neither of her now former employers did anything to stop her. Once Lucy was out of the house, Fire closed the door behind her, then once again reached into his pouch and handed her a rain-proof coat.

Then Fire started walking without a word, Lucy hurried to his side. Slowly, warily she asked: "What do you want from me?"

While walking, Fire said: "Here is no place to discuss details. All I can say right now is that I am very old and over my years I have learned to spot talents in people that they might not realize they have. As for you? I'm building a shelter for a lot of people and I need someone I can rely on."

Since Lucy didn't answer, Fire considered the conversation to be over and talked no further until they arrived at the tavern. Fire smiled to himself, he had doubts that Lucy knew the full magnitude about her involvement in his plan but what he knew for certain was that she would be ready for what was ahead of her.


	32. Chapter 31: Distracted

The Ender was not happy with the results of their "visit" to what the humans called a "prophet". A madman was what he was in all likelihood, shouting incoherent drivel all day long because his hallucinations were all that was left in his shattered mind. He had vanished before they could see him, though, so who knew?

This, however, did not change that they had learned virtually nothing and at the same time had spooked the population. One or two people had talked, yes, but probably out of not entirely irrational fear of being executed. The scraps of information they had gotten out of it boiled down to the fact that some of the escapees had been seen in the village closest to the Tower. By now they could be anywhere in the wilderness, which was something Nexus had a lot of.

The Ender was currently standing in front of the squadron she had taken with her, they stood there in perfect formation, awaiting her words.

She spoke in the screeching language of the End: "This operation was a failure." After a brief pause she continued. "None of you is individually at fault but the reason why you failed is still clear."

As she started pacing up and down the ranks the soldiers started shifting uncomfortably, they knew that she would only tolerate so much failure.

The Ender decided to address the issue directly. "You need to better understand and speak the human language."

In an instant all semblance of discipline had vanished from the squadron.

A soldier said: "You want us to degrade ourselves further and speak like those lesser beings?"

Similar complaints followed. Usually the Ender would have these soldiers punished on the spot but this was indeed a delicate topic, one she herself had spent the longest time wrestling with.

She spoke again, immediately suffocating any protest: "There is not the shadow of a doubt that humans are inferior to us, just as there is no doubt that our ancestors will frown upon us for speaking their tongue. But do you know what would make our ancestors even more furious? Us letting those roaches crawl away simply because we were unable to interrogate their brethren! As much as they have strayed otherwise, this is something the Grey Ones have learned."

Slowly the soldiers shifted back into formation, then they called out in unison: "Yes General! What are your orders?"

That was something the Ender loved to hear. She continued: "You will pass this on to any other members of the army you should encounter. Each of you is to seek out one of our human mercenaries and let them teach you more of the human tongue. Hostilities from either side will be treated as defiance of a direct order and punished accordingly. Are we clear?"

"Yes General!"

The Ender turned around, before teleporting into her office she said: "Dismissed."

She re-appeared in a sitting position at her desk. A map of the immediate area around the Tower was already on it, as well as various cartographing tools. She was in the process of systematically assigning patrol areas and exchange routes that would minimize the possibility of evading a search.

This was no easy task and it once again came to her mind how poorly they controlled the area around the Tower. The Entity was more in favor of expansion outside of Nexus and the mages and scientists in the lower levels very much shared this sentiment since it gave them a steady influx of test subjects and of those crystals. It had been a while since she had taken a look at their machine, she didn't know about its exact purpose but she hoped this one would function instead of killing their most valuable researchers in a dimensional vortex.

Back to the map. Her eyes wandered across the various biomes that surrounded the Tower. Flatlands were easier to overlook so larger areas could be assigned to a single unit. What still gave her headaches though were the vast cave systems below, they were hardly explored and if someone knew their way around caves they could easily evade a search.

She shuddered at the thought… caves. Wet and confined, the exact opposite of what her kind thrived in. Naturally this meant that only human mercenaries could be sent to explore down there, which she didn't have high hopes for seeing how some of them had performed recently.

Back to the map again. She drew arrows between the areas to symbolize the paths patrols should take when transitioning between zones, preferably sweeping potential hideouts while doing so.

She let out a frustrated grunt. She just couldn't properly focus. Was it because of the failed mission? Was it because of the fact that she could have given her order to learn the human tongue earlier and thus could have made the mission turn out better?

"What the hell is wrong with me?" She said intentionally in the human tongue. Despite what it was, speaking it helped her distance herself from her emotions, it felt like she was putting on a mask.

It just was no use, working on the map now would just result in faulty patrols. She pushed herself away from the table and left the room in order to take a walk through the corridors of the Tower. She passed stacks of cushions, glass vitrines filled with preserved corpses, paintings of landscapes, collections of materials that didn't quite seem to fit into this world…

After a few random turns she came across a niche that was filled with books. Her mind flashed back in time to a comparatively pleasant memory. It had been here where she had met Fire, he was someone she could at least hold an interesting conversation with. The first in a while when she thought about it, the Entity's mind was too foreign and on top of that notoriously uncreative. Freak was agreeable but no intellectual; he couldn't go a minute without some jab or snide remark. She rarely had to do with the scientists and mages, they took orders directly from the Entity. Glibby mostly did his own thing, or, the Silhouette's thing to be exact, they only ever spoke when it came to coordinating and that only when it was absolutely necessary. Perhaps that should change as well, she couldn't let something as trivial as him effectively stealing a hand full of squadrons worth of already trained warriors from her from talking with him.

The Ender hissed. No, she'd keep contact with that honorless brute at a minimum.

Fire was the closest thing she had met in Nexus to someone that she could call an equal, especially when he revealed on the way to the storerooms that he could speak her language. Though the fact that he waited that long also lead her to believe that during their information tango he had walked away with significantly more than she had. The Ender admitted to herself that she had been uncharacteristically careless, she really should have watched him more closely from the start, especially from when he told her how old and therefore experienced he was. It sure would be nice to have someone like him here in the tower, it certainly would make the strategic side of things easier.

Before she could properly finish that thought the Ender realized she was standing at the door of her office again. Had she been that absorbed in her musings? No matter, after her little walk she felt significantly more able to focus on her task. If this state of mind kept up, she'd have a complete patrol plan for the area before the next day.

She smiled to herself. No matter where they were hiding, soon they would have to try a lot harder.


	33. Chapter 32: How the Future goes

I have to admit, after the meeting I was not feeling the most confident. Still driven, but not confident. I was hanging behind as everyone else filtered out, hands on my hips and eyes downward in an attempt to look like I was deliberating. In truth, pondering was perhaps a better word.

The Dreamweaver was still acting unimpeached and all that we had really changed was making it aware we were watching for it. That was naturally a risky move. Either it was going to be deterred or it was going to start retaliating. So far this thing was just engaging in fanciful, or rather, deeply unfanciful conjurings, but what else was it capable of? Why was it doing any of this?

I was pretty sure I could take it's worst efforts. Herobrine had taught me well. I remembered the white eyes which had once seemed so tender and wise and my stomach twisted in nostalgic sadness. I remembered how, as we retreated from Vechs across the Southern Crafts, an ash cloud had floated up from the ruins of the Thaumlands I had fought to grant independence, blue and red sparking out of the suffocating grey.

_"'Kicked in the soul' is an accurate description to be sure,"_ I thought.

But yes, in those days when I had served the Blind Watcher, he had taught me a great many things about the guarding of the mind and the protection of dreams in particular. I could take this Dreamweaver.

But what if it went after Warnado? He was only a kid! Powerful magic-user he may have been, he was also vulnerable and I'll be honest I kind of got the vibe he was making it all up as he went along as regards the magic. How else did he keep summoning jam alongside coin? And what if this child ended up getting hurt because I couldn't figure out if Destiny or Fristad or neither of them was messing with his girlfriend's head?

Said child nudged me. We were the only ones left.

"So," he asked, with unconvincing enthusiasm. "What's the plan?" The upper half of his face was obscured, but in the auburn depths of his eyes and the curls of his mouth I could see the twitching of worry and anger. I had to help him catch this thing.

"I need time to think, and we need to do some research on mind-altering magics. I think I saw a library, book shop sort of thing around here." Then, it occurred to me that he might interpret this as an invite. Naturally, I liked the kid a lot but I needed some space. "You stay here, I'll go find it and come back for you. I should have a clearer idea of what we're looking for by the time I'm back."

Warnado was uncharacteristically laconic, offering a simple "alright" before marching off, presumably in search of Amanda. I felt terrible.

And so I ambled out into the corridor, trying to feel aloof from everything and just strategise but I couldn't keep it all bottled up in my head. I had to talk aloud. Turning Warnado away was a mistake except it wasn't because I needed to say things that might upset him and that I didn't necessarily agree with but which I needed to say aloud to process. And although talking to Tyron felt pretty good the other day now it looked like he and Kir could be the ones responsible. And what if NO ONE was trustworthy?

WhoCouldITalkToWasIJustGoingToSitThereAloneStewingInAbjectMiseryAndConfusionUntilIMakeAnotherInevitableMistakeAndGetEveryone-

"Hi, Kay."

I jumped much higher than I'd like to admit. I must have been like a cat on springs. I felt the breeze of motion on me and it felt good. I was almost about to grab my sword. Thankfully, I landed facing my startler and it was just Astro. He blinked.

"You didn't see that," I ordered.

"Don't worry, who am I going to tell?" he asked, smiling.

"Probably Aaron first, then maybe Secret. You and Cossack have been pretty chummy since Killer Craft so probably him too."

He laughed but he seemed kind of confused. That was when I tensed up again. I still didn't know how he had gotten here.

"So," he began. "That was… intense back there."

"Yeah," I stated, trying to cover a tendency toward iciness and restraint with a very tangible and sincere irritation. "Destiny almost set Fristad on fire. I noticed."

And then he said something that broke through all my defences: "Don't beat yourself up about it. I know this isn't ideal but you're doing your best, and I know you can find out what's going on. You always have, and you always will." And near as I can tell he was absolutely sincere.

And as he said all this my mental image of him flickered and he was just the same old Astro. The guy who invested in my airship. Who let me fly again, short as that had been. Who spared me on the banks of the river. Who had been a voice of wisdom and guidance throughout our entire journey across the Old Continent into the New. I choked up and I wanted to tell him everything and I almost did. But I had to ask something first.

"Listen, I really want to confide in you right now, but I need to know something first."

Astro smiled again and spread his arms: "Go ahead."

"How did you get here?"

He bit his lip, deliberating. "I was kidnapped by some Endlings."

"They Grey Ones, I know. But in what circumstances."

Now he was quiet. "I was… out hunting?"

"With who?"

"...Secret?"

"That's funny, because last I saw you, you and Brit and that creep Gracey were all out getting our visas arranged."

"Bugger."

I reached for my sword, then froze up. I let my hand fall back. I looked up and he was holding his hands before him, pity moistening his eyes. But there was no indication he was going to fight back. He could have broken my neck in a second if he wanted to, but he was just looking at me, with all the disappointment and sadness of an old man struck by tragedy. And then I knew why he was so different, and why I could still trust him.

"So, how long has it been since that?"

"I'm guessing about a decade."

I hugged him. "I'm sorry." I patted him on the back and let go. "A decade?"

"Maybe a little more." I hugged him even harder, almost knocking him over.

"Hey, easy," he laughed. "Anyway, before you ask, no I'm not telling you about how the future goes."

But there was still something weighing on me. A weight upon my shoulders. A terror that needed calming.

So, I asked: "Can I get one question?"

"Yes, you do come back!" Astro groaned. "You get out of here, now get out there and solve this mystery!"

"That wasn't my question but good to know. And I'm still holding you to that question. We have a verbal contract. It would hold up in court and I _will_ sue. And an interdimensional court is totally going to buy that you're from my future. They've seen some _shit_ this last while, that won't even register!"

He was laughing away and I followed suit. He leant back against the wall and closed his eyes, rubbing his temples like a psychic. "Okay…" He put on a stern, theatrical voice: "What truths do you seek?"

I paused for a moment. Did I really want to know? My stomach felt like it had just fallen through a trapdoor. But I pressed on.

"Do I still have both my ears in the future?"

Astro snorted and managed to choke out one question before collapsing over into laughter: "Seriously?"

"Yes!" I insisted, eyes widening with worry. "Yes! Everyone who knows something about my future keeps remarking that I 'still have the other one' and it's eating me up inside!"

"But why the ears?" He was crying laughing now, wiping away the salty tears with the tips of his fingers.

"I don't want to look lopsided - answer the damned question!"

He took a few seconds to calm himself, before finally chuckling out: "You have both your ears. I swear it."

The weight was lifted.

"Thank you."

He didn't say anything, but his smile made it clear I owed him nothing. But I really did, because he'd really cleared things up. He wasn't the Dreamweaver. He was still my close, dear friend and I _could_ talk to him. Poor Tyron was out of the job as my informal therapist. Still, sound lad. He might make a good backup.

Best of all, I now had a clear idea of what I was going to achieve at the library.

"Anyway, I'll grab a drink with you later. I've got a mystery to solve."

I sprinted off down the hall, calling to Warnado at the top of my lungs. We were going to go over there and we were going to talk out all the books they had on mind-altering magic, dream interpretation and military strategy. We were going to figure out the magical, psychological and physical aspects of this thing if it killed us.

_"Come on out Dreamweaver,"_ thought I. _"I'm ready for you."_


	34. Chapter 33: A New Purpose

Fire opened the front door of the tavern, letting Lucy in first then following right after her. He was very thankful that most of the tavern's ceilings were high enough that he didn't have to hunch over.

He turned to Lucy. "I reserved you a room upstairs, I imagine you'll want to get some rest. I will come talk to you tomorrow, it's best if you take some time to clear your mind."

Lucy wordlessly took the keys he gave her. Fire interpreted her continued silence less as fear and more as being overwhelmed by the sequence of events she had just experienced. He gave her a smile before she disappeared towards the staircase.

Fire decided to go to the inn, maybe some of the others were still there, he wanted to tell them what he had seen. The Ender showing up at the Prophet's hill, looking for the escapees was a matter that was much more immediately pressing to the others than to him.

The door to the inn was tall but not quite tall enough, after lowering his head to get through Fire took a look around. There was the usual amount of patrons, some of them familiar, the only one he recognized by name was Shadow, sitting at a table drinking what looked to be red wine. She saw him as well and waved. Fire sat down next to her.

He asked: "I assume you saw what happened at the hill through your projection?"

Shadow took a sip and nodded. "I probably should tell you about what happened here in the meantime. We had a meeting of sorts in one of the rooms, discussed the nightmares. Destiny just straight up accused Fristad, seems like she saw something last night. She generally doesn't seem to be doing well." She sighed. "She almost burned Fristad with magic. I might have to think about modifying my soundproofing spell with a dampening field so that can't happen in the future."

Just as Shadow finished speaking, the door flew open. In came Destiny. She looked across the entire room, didn't find who or what she was looking for and promptly left again. Through the closing door Fire saw her going up the stairs to the rented rooms.

"Speak of the devil," Shadow said.

Fire asked: "Anything else noteworthy?"

Shadow shook her head. "No, not really. It was what you would expect from such a meeting. Kay leads the investigation into the Dreamweaver, everyone else voices their support."

Fire prepared to stand up again. "As much as I'd like to sit here with you and maybe get some of that wine for myself, I'd rather try to talk with Destiny. I don't really know her but I want to make sure she stays at least reasonably stable."

Shadow replied: "Have fun, don't get stabbed."

Fire smiled as he stood up. He slowly went up the narrow staircase and into the corridor. If he remembered Destiny's room number correctly she'd have the fourth door on the right. Lucy was now two doors further down the corridor.

Fire knocked on Destiny's door. At first there was no reply, instead of knocking again, Fire waited a few moments.

The door opened slowly until it was open just enough for Destiny to fit her head through the door. Destiny looked at Fire with a mix of annoyance and worry. While these emotions were not directed specifically at Fire, Fire could tell that Destiny was not in the best psychological state.

"Hello Destiny." Fire said. He now had to choose his words very carefully in order to avoid sounding insensitive, he also decided to completely leave out what he had heard from Shadow. "I'm Fire, Kay and Warnado's friend. I don't think we were ever formally introduced. I apologise for disturbing you." She nodded slowly, clearly expecting him to get to the point. "I was at the Prophet's hill again today. The Ender conducted a raid of some sorts, looking for the escapees. You should be safe for now since nobody gave up information."

She scoffed and gritted her teeth: "Okay. Now, how about why you're actually here?"

Fire nodded. "You got me there. I still haven't really gotten a full picture of what exactly happened after I left the Tower. I don't really know where the others are, so I thought you could help me out with some of the details."

Destiny's demeanour grew grave and she lowered her eyes. She grumbled something but acquiesced and opened the door to her room, letting Fire inside before closing the door behind her.

"Well, I don't know when you left the Tower, so I guess I'll start at the beginning," Destiny sighed, tone starting out mockingly upbeat before shrivelling into bitterness. "David and I found a portal from our world leading to Nexus. We knew there was an evil force on the other side. So, we did the _heroic thing_ and went through." Destiny drifted off ruefully. "We were in Nexus for five damned minutes before they had us in a jail cell. We were kept in a room alongside Tyron and Astro. Well-furnished. They wanted us to talk. We didn't oblige and tried to escape, so they dropped the act. They separated us, shoved us into cells and tortured us for information. Then, Kay recognised Astro and got Warnado to free us. During the fighting, me, David and a few others found ourselves fighting against a group of heavily armed endermen. Things went to shit real quick. David and I were surrounded, and…" Destiny's voice choked up but she fought through it, rage treading sadness into the dirt. She pressed on in a tone of escalating, wild fury that she struggled to repress: "David shattered his gauntlet, causing an explosion. He killed a lot of them, bought us time to escape the Tower, but… he died. Burned half-"

Fire interjected calmly: "You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to. I would know, I lost people I cared about as well."

"Tough shit, we all have-" Destiny stopped herself, before sighing and offering in concession: "So, you know what it's like."

Fire nodded, unfazed. "It was not entirely the same situation as you. While the one I loved was among those lost, I was never sure if the feeling was mutual. There is also the fact that I was the sole survivor of the event that killed them, only by sheer coincidence."

"Okay then, you don't really know what it's like." Destiny stared off with a mix of disappointment and anger. "Listen, I get you probably mean well, but it doesn't change the fact that David is dead." Destiny tried to regain her composure. "But at the same time, you don't seem the sort of person who takes things lightly. So I guess that means something."

Fire said: "It would be a lie to deny that our situations are different. The reason I am bringing this up is that I hope that you eventually do get over everything, however long that may take. I know this because I got over my losses eventually too. But there is something else that didn't go away. You see, after the incident I refused to talk to anyone about it, refused professional help, even when it was readily available. Instead I just looked for things to distract me, at first it was exercise, then academic study. Over the years I just projected my negative feelings onto someone else, someone that I created. I know enough about psychology now to know that that was a bad idea, pretty much the worst thing I could have done. I was human back then, but when I became what I am now that other side of me grew, got a life of its own, and now I have to keep it chained down wherever I go. So, Destiny, what I'm trying to say is: Don't do what I did. The loss eventually fades, but whatever you do to yourself stays with you, even when you live thousands of years."

Destiny's eyes widened. She glanced at Fire for a brief moment in fear, and then her expression became lucid. She nodded and returned to resigned concession. "I understand. At least… I think I do. But, I don't know what to do next. I feel like I don't have a purpose. We were reincarnated across multiple lifetimes to fight alongside each other. To… love each other. Now, we're out of step. He died. I'm still here."

Fire nodded again. "I understand that." He paused, deliberately. "Listen, purpose can help but purpose alone can't fix you. That being said, if you promise me to try not to let emptiness devour you, I might be able to give you a new purpose. At least for a while."

She said nothing but didn't object.

"When I was listening to the Prophet they said I was the champion of some prophecy. In truth, that could be anyone with the right abilities filling that role; the prophecy just makes the people believe it. Anyways, what I'll be trying to do now is create a shelter for as many people as possible. I could use all of the help I can get. Your skills in magic and combat certainly would help, conflict is not out of the question and we need capable people to act as mentors." Fire paused, he was unsure about what he was going to say next but decided to risk it, even if mentioning the nightmares might have unintended effects. "After this nasty situation with the nightmares is resolved, you could join me. What do you say?"

Destiny's eyes lit up desperately, but she suppressed it. "I'll think about it. Might be better than being cooped up in this village."

Fire turned towards the door and prepared to go, he said: "It was nice talking to you Destiny."

As the door closed behind him Fire took a deep breath. That had gone much better than he had hoped; their group might just pull through this conflict relatively unharmed.


	35. Chapter 34: Dimensional Sandwich Science

Steve and Jennifer inspected the large map laying upon Jennifer's inn bed. The map had grown increasingly detailed over the past few days, as the two of them had mapped out the major untapped resource deposits in the caves surrounding the village. There were other notable details on the map as well, like the border between the village, the farms, and the various biomes of wilderness beyond them. There was also a small border on one edge of the map where there was a discontinuity in terrain due to the various worlds being stitched together into Nexus. Jennifer liked to call it a, "dimensional sandwich layer," or DSL for short. This nearby DSL would soon be an active area of exploration for Steve and Jennifer, assuming the rest of the group decided to stay in this village for a few more days.

"What do you think, Steve?" Jennifer asked. "Should we check out that northwest patch, or should we consider this DSL's resources covered?"

"I think we've covered it well enough," Steve said. "We don't know how long we'll be in this area, so we should check out that nearby desert region, once we've done some experiments on these new materials we found. That way we can decide how much of it we want to have on us."

"Agreed," said Jennifer. "Do you think we should take a look at those crystals, too? It's definitely a risk, but they could reveal something important about the Tower's motivations."

Steve pondered for a moment, scratching his beard. "It's a risk. Their henchmen could detect our crystals on their radar and track us down. We _could_ do our experiments some distance away from the village. They will likely search the village anyway, but if we leave behind a convincingly active laboratory, that could distract them. I could set up some redstone detectors set to the frequency of our radio, which would alert us in advance if they start searching the laboratory. Given how valuable these crystals must be, it might be worth the gamble."

"That sounds like a good plan," Jennifer said. "Do you think we should ask Shadow to help us? It might help to have someone with magic knowledge, given that Wolfric isn't around."

Steve scratched his beard again. "That's _also_ a risk. The nightmare investigation is still going on. She could be the Dreamweaver."

"That's true, but there is only a _chance_ that Shadow is the Dreamweaver, and on top of that, we don't really know what the Dreamweaver's intentions are. There are a lot of odd people in our little Nexus caravan, and we don't know any of them very well."

"We know Fristad a bit more than most."

"Yea, we do know Fristad more, but… something tells me he wouldn't be interested."

"I see your point," Steve said. "I guess we're better off just trusting her. She seems very knowledgeable."

Jennifer grinned with the gleam of adventure. "It's settled, then. Should we set up a base of operations over there in the southeast corner?"

Steve and Jennifer walked down the inn stairs, and were pleasantly surprised, if a bit startled, when they saw Fire land in the foyer in front of them, having jumped down from a higher floor.

"Hey, Fire!" Steve said. "Taking the stairs isn't your style, huh?"

Fire turned around. "Normally it would be, but I figured it would be faster this time around, and it's good to practice my reflexes a bit. Also in my defense, narrow stairs with small steps aren't exactly friendly to people my size."

"That's fair. Jennifer and I were wondering if you knew where Shadow was?"

"She is just in the inn dining area having a drink," Fire said. "Is there something you want to ask her?"

Steve figured it would be best to just tell the truth. "We thought we'd ask her if she would like to help us do some research on some materials we found on our mining trips. Some of the materials in this DSL are unfamiliar to us."

"I'm sure she'll be happy to assist you with that, she does like herself some research from time to time." Fire said.

"Great. Thanks, Fire."

Steve and Jennifer walked into the dining hall and walked to the bench where Shadow was sitting, sipping some expensive-looking wine that Steve was pretty sure wasn't served at this inn.

"Hello Shadow," Steve said. "Jennifer and I are doing some materials research and were wondering if you would be interested in joining us?" Steve then remembered the reason why they were building a research base so far from the village. "For reasons that will become clear pretty quickly, we'd like to keep the details between the three of us. Fire can also know about it if he wants to."

Shadow took another sip from her wine, then said: "Sure, don't have anything else planned."

"Great. We leave when you're ready."

"Just let me finish this glass."

After Shadow finished her glass of wine and made it float back to the bar, she joined Steve and Jennifer at the front of the inn, and the three of them departed for the predetermined spot in the forest that represented the southeast corner of Steve and Jennifer's map. The downpour outside had made no sign of letting up. Shadow used a spell to deflect the rain around the three of them.

After a short journey; Steve, Jennifer, and Shadow arrived at a small clearing in a forest. Steve assessed the area and nodded. "This spot will do."

Jennifer nodded. "Once we've built the initial room, we can start planning out the details."

In a short period of time, Steve and Jennifer had assembled a staircase leading into an underground room, similar in design to the underground bunkers they built in the days when their motley team was traveling away from the Tower. Shadow walked into the room to get a feel for its size.

Steve walked behind Jennifer down the staircase and pulled the lever, causing the pistons to extend and seal the ground above them. "Now that we're in a bunker in a relatively isolated location, let's talk about the reason we went through all the trouble to build it. As you probably guessed, Jen and I have been mining for the past several days, and we found some new resources we'd like to understand better. However, we also have been carrying around some gems for a while - well, I guess you could call them crystals. Technicalities in rock definitions aside, the Entity is looking for them. Long story short, the last time I took the crystals out of my ender chest, we were quickly ambushed by an enderman and some giants and then got swept up in negotiations with the Entity. The Entity's henchmen have detectors designed to find these crystals, so once they're out of the ender chest, we're putting ourselves at risk."

Jennifer nodded. "I think it's a necessary risk. If we learn more about how the crystals work, we can understand the Entity's motivations better, and perhaps even put them to good use."

Shadow replied: "I'll try my best to be quick then."

"We have a few ideas," Steve said. "First, we should do research on the newer materials. Second, we will set up detectors in the lab set to the frequencies of our radios, which will let us know if the Entity's henchmen go looking for our crystals while we're gone."

"I like it, them finding something also helps take some pressure away from the village. Well, after the inevitable area sweep is done. From what Fire said this Ender seems quite competent when it comes to military things."

Steve frowned. He knew that their experiments on the crystals could force the group to leave the village, but he was getting the impression from Shadow that this was a certainty, not just a possibility. This made him feel a little more guilty. He hoped it would turn out to be the right decision in the long run.

"That's good to know," Steve said.

"How about we catalogue all of the materials we found, then decide how we will do our experiments?" Jennifer proposed.

Steve and Shadow agreed, and samples of the various materials were laid out onto a quickly constructed stone table.

Most of the materials Steve and Jennifer mined were similar to the ores and gems from their own world, but some appeared to have subtle differences. The redstone dust they found in the current DSL was discovered by accident to be water resistant. The lapis lazuli had a strange smell. Steve was interested to see if that was connected to the lapis smuggling operations they encountered earlier. The other cave materials Steve and Jennifer recognized from their world were also laid out on the table, on the off-chance that these dimensional variants had unique properties that were less obvious. Finally, there were three materials on the table that were completely unfamiliar. The first one was a soft, black dust with the consistency of clay. The second one was a glowing, purple-blue rock. And the third was a deep blue metal ore which refused to melt in a coal-powered furnace.

Shadow asked: "You have more samples, right? If I want to analyze those quickly, disintegration is the best way."

"Yes, we have at least two stacks of each material, with the exception of the glowing rock, which we have about half a stack of. As for the crystals, we only have a few of those, so it would be best to not waste them, although we should still find a way to analyze them quickly," Steve said.

"Alright, let's begin." Shadow said.

She pointed her palm at the sample of redstone, glowing runes appeared over her arm and a few seconds later a blindingly bright beam of energy struck the sample, accompanied by a low crackling and humming. After a few moments the beam disappeared, only leaving behind a hole in the table and some heated air. Shadow then repeated this process multiple times. When she arrived at the purple-blue rock something was different though, the sample remained mostly intact, only to be obliterated by a second, seemingly more powerful blast.

Shadow quickly explained: "Obvious things first, those rocks seem to absorb magic but can only store a certain amount before becoming saturated. This is similar to how silver behaves in my world, which is interesting. As for the other samples, the lapis is just regular lapis except with traces of sulfur, which explains the smell. The redstone is interesting, if you were to mix it with iron powder and smelt it into an alloy you'd get a material with good conductive properties. The black dust is an excellent electrical insulator. The blue metal seems to be of Nether origin, it's quite lightweight, durable and tools made from it could have self-sharpening properties."

Steve did a triple take. He knew Shadow was a competent wizard, but he didn't expect her to finish analyzing the samples so quickly.

_Does she need a drink of water? Or maybe a second opinion? Then again, does she even need to drink water? Is such a question even warranted, given the custom of drinking water when experiencing stress may not exist in the culture which Shadow originates from?_ Steve thought to himself, before composing himself and coming up with an appropriate response for the situation before this pause could lengthen into a quadruple take. "That's an impressive analysis. It's nice to know the redstone in this dimension has the same alloying properties as in our world. Combined with its water-resistant properties and the insulating dust, that gives us just what we need to make new electronics if we need them. As for the blue metal and the magic-absorbing glowing rocks, those might be worth experimenting with more while we're here. I would be interested to see how the blue metal works as a pickaxe, provided I can figure out how to smelt it."

Jennifer nodded. "I would be interested to see if the blue metal could be used to make re-usable arrows."

"I've tried smelting the blue metal ore in a furnace, but was not successful," Steve explained. "Given that, according to Shadow's analysis, the metal is originally from the Nether, it should be possible to melt the ore using lava." Steve took out a furnace and placed it down to the left of the table, then took out a single bucket of lava and began testing his theory.

"Those glowing rocks are too brittle to be used for magic-resistant armor, and aside from that we don't have a lot of them," Jennifer thought aloud. "Maybe they could be used as a potion ingredient. What do you think, Shadow?"

"For non-magical people drinking powdered anti-magic rock probably doesn't change much. But it could be used for curse purging or some amount of protection from magic, in splash potion form you could probably also disrupt low-energy spells or temporarily disable casters." Shadow replied.

_Sounds like a way to counter the Dreamweaver,_ Steve thought to himself. He didn't want to say it aloud, on the off-chance Shadow was the Dreamweaver.

"It's worth a shot," Jennifer said, pulling out a brewing stand from her pocket and placing it on the table.

In a few moments, a standard triplet of potions was brewed using a small amount of the glowing stone crushed up and thrown in at the end as a catalyst. Jennifer kept the gunpowder on standby. At this point, Steve was euphemistically cursing under his breath as the blue metal in his furnace refused to melt, and was turning over in his head about how to proceed.

As the glowing rock finished dissolving into the potion to form a glowing purple liquid, Jennifer sprinkled in the gunpowder, then took out a heavily damaged bow, which faintly gleamed purple from enchantment. "One test we could try would be to apply the potion to this bow in splash potion form," Jennifer proposed. "Since you're a magic user, maybe you have some other ideas on how we could test the potions."

Shadow nodded. "I could conjure up a magical light source on the ground. I'd prefer if the tests didn't involve splashing me with the potion. My clothes are magical as well and I think you would prefer for them not to disappear."

"Sounds like a plan," Jennifer said.

Jennifer placed the damaged enchanted bow onto the ground, and threw a potion at it. She jumped slightly as the bowstring snapped.

Jennifer walked up to the broken bow, picked it up, and inspected it. Not surprisingly, the broken bow no longer had its enchantment. Broken equipment tended to be that way. But interestingly, the torn bowstring was far from the only new source of damage. New scratches and dents had appeared all along the length of the wood, as if all the bumps and grazes absorbed by the enchantment over the course of the bow's life were released back onto the bow.

"Judging from the bow breaking, and the new damage that wasn't there before, it looks like the unbreaking enchantment failed catastrophically," Jennifer said. "Let's try the magical light source."

Shadow stepped back and pointed her hand toward the ground, and a single rune glowed on her finger. A glowing white ball of light about the size of a closed fist appeared on the ground, next to it was an identical one.

"One of those orbs is actively supplied with energy by me, the other one slowly drains from its surroundings to sustain itself. Let's see if anything different happens."

Jennifer threw a splash potion so that it landed in between the two lights. Both lights vanished. After a few moments passed, one of the lights began to barely glow again, until it was restored to its original brightness. Only the actively powered light had survived.

Meanwhile, Steve was testing a blast furnace he built, which took up quite a bit of space in the room. The furnace was being heated by coals with lava underneath to get the process started, and the only thing left was to stoke the flames and hope the ore would melt. After the unperturbed and rather athletic Steve gave the bellows some elbow grease, he checked inside the furnace and was pleased to find the ore had sunk into his newly crafted ingot casts.

"Any luck with melting the ore?" Jennifer asked, not able to see inside the furnace from her angle.

"Thankfully, yes." Steve said. "Do you mind helping me smelt the rest of this, and then we can craft some tools for testing?"

Jennifer agreed. Shadow also offered to help, and used some of her magic to increase the heat in the furnace to speed up the melting. Once the first set of ingots cooled, Steve and Jennifer used the ingots to create a pickaxe and some arrows. Steve was impressed by the pick's mining speed, and Jennifer was pleased with the durability of the arrows and the speed at which they fired, so they made more. Once the remaining resources were stored away, there was only one thing left to test.

Steve placed his ender chest onto the ground. He looked toward Jennifer, and then toward Shadow.

"Any ideas?"

"About how to test the crystals?" Jennifer probed.

"Exactly."

Shadow shrugged. "I'll see what I can do once it's here."

"I'll take out just one for now," Steve said. He reached into the ender chest and took out a crystal. This one had a small dent in the top, was yellow in color, and glowed much like the other crystals did. He handed the crystal to Shadow.

There was a look of surprise on Shadow's face. She said: "No wonder people carrying these get caught by the Entity's goons. This one alone has a massive energy signature, no telling of a whole bag. Alright, let me examine it further."

Shadow held the crystal close to her head and closed her eyes, different runes on her body flashed in irregular intervals. After about a minute Shadow handed the crystal back to Steve. "This crystal… it has something like a metaphysical chain attached to it, it seems it's connected to a world close to Nexus. I have never seen anything like it."

Steve nervously put the crystal back into the ender chest, figuring every second the crystal was exposed was another moment at which the Tower could take notice.

"Could you explain that in layman's words, please?" Steve asked politely.

"From what I could tell this crystal somehow formed somewhere in a different world, then was taken to Nexus. It is still connected to the place where it formed, like an anchor. It's quite interesting: the crystals seem to exist in more than three dimensions, a part of them punctures the 'walls' of the world and is in direct contact with the Void. We know that something caused a pull that created Nexus, it might have been these crystals that were pulled on and took their worlds with them. I can't really say more on how or why they exist but knowing that they do seems important."

"What about the energy signature?" Jennifer asked.

"The crystals themselves are actually unremarkable in their energy. The 'chains' back to their place of origin seem to be anchored to those void-exposed points. These breaches are what cause the massive energy signatures, like quickly dragging a stick through water creates waves. I think the signatures are less important to us since those only aid in finding the crystals, the chains themselves are what's important."

Steve becomes deep in thought. "So, the energy signature of the crystals is what makes us a glowing target on the Entity minions' radar. No surprise there. But at the same time it's not a good power source. So, whatever these 'dimensional chains' do, the Tower must have found a use for them…"

Jennifer mused, "If I was a villain commanding a giant castle, and I had poor interior design sense, and I was collecting a bunch of dimensional chains from all over the place, what would I do?"

"Pull on them?" Steve offered.

Jennifer gave Steve a funny look. "That wasn't the elaborate explanation I was hoping for that would tie together all of the Entity's weird character traits, but yes, that would be my first guess. I would pull on them. Then what would happen after that? Shadow?"

"That depends entirely on how those chains work. They could be static so nothing happens, the link could also break, in the most likely case it would actually start tearing out parts of the other world, especially when you look at..."

Steve and Jennifer looked at each other.

"Like the dimensional sandwich layers here in Nexus." Jennifer concluded.

"Funny how it's called 'Nexus'," Steve said. "It's almost like this place _wants_ to be the center of the multiverse."

"So, it's not just a fancy name for a dimensional hub where a bunch of peoples and cultures from different worlds come together and hang out?" Jennifer remarked sarcastically.

Shadow said: "With some of the things the Prophet says, any hope of it just being that is becoming increasingly delusional."

"Great," Steve said. "It seems we've stumbled into the center of what quite possibly could be the end of the multiverse."


	36. Chapter 35: The Book is right, as usual

Steve placed down a lever on the ground near the entrance to the bunker and flipped it; causing unseen redstone-powered pneumatics to push up grass, soil, and stone into place; leaving behind a patch of grassy meadow floor whose subtle seams would have made even the most discerning lawn gardener impressed. Steve then dug up the lever, and followed behind Shadow and Jennifer as the three made their way through the rain-dampened forest back to the village.

Shadow parted ways with Steve and Jennifer, and the duo resolved to find Kay and Warnado to let them know about their new discovery that the glowing stone could be used to inhibit magic.

First, they checked the tavern. The old wooden door to the tavern was left open invitingly, or perhaps as a way to let in some fresh air. The tavern was quiet and almost empty of patrons, aside from a single man sitting at the counter.

Then, they checked the inn. Kay's room was unoccupied. The usual evening crowd was in the dining commons, but there was no one familiar who they could probe for information about Kay and Warnado's whereabouts.

"Well, this is inconvenient." Steve said.

"I guess it was bound to happen eventually," Jennifer said. "Doesn't Kay usually hang about town?"

"He did buy a crossbow recently. Maybe he's taking some practice shots."

As it turned out, Kay was, in fact, in a small library at the edge of the village, which up to this point Steve and Jennifer were not aware existed. Judging from the staircase and the rooms, it seemed like it used to be a house at some point. Kay seemed to be busily searching through the shelves.

"What are you looking for?" Steve asked.

"Some friendly villager working in a rather unremarkable bakery said this library had a section on military tactics." Kay pulled out a book, looked at its cover, frowned, shoved the book back in, and continued looking. "But as far as I can tell, this building's owner was not particularly keen on keeping things organized. Or perhaps there was an attempt at order at some point, but then the owner gave up when faced with the chaos of this world's new reality? Since when was I this ponderous? Why am I reading this book if I literally can't understand a word of what it's saying? Blasted alternate dimensions and their confusingly similar letters!" Kay shoved another book back into the shelf. "Anyways, how's it going?"

"We did some research," Steve said. "Some of the materials we've mined in the local caves have useful properties. One of them seems like it might be useful for your investigation."

Kay turned his head eagerly toward Steve. "You could not have come at a better time. Although this isn't the best place to discuss it, given the library being open to the public…" Kay gestured subtly up towards the second floor with his head.

Steve looked up and saw Fristad standing just behind the second floor's cracked green painted bannister. Fristad held a book just below his shoulders. He averted eye contact with Steve and looked down towards the book in his hands, attempting to make himself look busy. Steve studied Fristad's face for a moment, deep in thought.

"Agreed," Steve said. "Let's go somewhere more private."

"Warnado's somewhere in the back," Kay said. "I'll go get him."

Out of the corner of my eye, I glimpse Steve, Kay, and the others vanish from the library's front door. I close the library book, feeling the historian's steady narrative of the early days of some feudal society slowly fade from my mind. I carefully study the engraving of a house on the book's front cover, then stand on my toes and place the book laying down on the edge of a high shelf. Like Kay said, this library is a mess. With any luck, that book will still be there when I get back.

I feel an urgency growing within me. I step down the library's strangely homey staircase, noting carefully the sound of the wood beneath my boots. I walk to the front of the library and slowly open the door.

It is raining outside. I listen and hear faint murmurs of people in the village, but it's unclear if they are familiar voices. I quickly step out into the rain and close the library door behind me, keeping my body close to the walls.

I look out toward the expanse of farmland and the distant trees beyond it. Then, I turn my head left and right, noting the buildings and the lack of people outside.

I quickly walk around a corner and look down the road. A single child runs by, carrying something in a cloth, with a hand over their head as measly protection from the admittedly mild rain. I think I can faintly hear Kay making conversation, but I can't tell what direction his voice is coming from. I step further into the village, observing carefully with each new step.

"It wasn't really that bad," I hear Kay say, a brightness to his voice suggesting a level of pride. "I've gotten a far worse scar from Astro… two, actually... and he didn't even apologize! Besides, nobody becomes an expert at anything without a considerable amount of effort and a few embarrassing mistakes along the way."

I slow my pace. Kay's voice is getting a bit too loud. I hope they aren't walking towards me.

Finally, Kay's voice fades, and I turn my head around the next building. The group is walking away from me, same as before. I think they are headed for the inn.

I continue to follow them, keeping near corners of buildings and hoping they don't turn around and see me. As I predicted, they finally enter the inn. I wait a few moments before walking through the door behind them.

The dining area is packed and loud, making overhearing the unsuspecting targets of my eavesdropping difficult. I peer very briefly toward the dining area, but I can only file away a few faces of strangers in my mind before I fear someone will see me and head up the staircase.

The dining crowd is quieter up here in the halls, but I still can't make out voices coming from the rooms. I walk up to a door and put my ear against it. There is not a single sound behind it. I lean against another door. Nothing. Another door? Still nothing. Why do I even bother? What if they're not here, and I saw someone else walking through that inn door?

"Check every door," the Book commands. "Do not stand here with doubt and rumination as Steve plots to undermine you."

I do as it says, listening at each door briefly but thoroughly. To my surprise, my efforts are finally rewarded, and I hear Steve's familiar voice through one of the doors. I guess I shouldn't be surprised. The Book is right, as usual.

Steve's words are muffled by the sound of the downstairs din. I feel a small spark of anger that makes me want to go downstairs and shut them all up. But now is not the time for that. The next words Steve says could be very important. I listen carefully, translating the voice from the commotion.

"We can talk about that a bit more when the rest of the group gets back," Steve says. "Anyways, there was another material we found - let me pull it out so you can see it."

Steve's voice fades from beneath the inn patron din. It's hard to tell if he's whispering, or just rummaging through his pants. I hope he's still audible. I keep listening in anticipation.

"There," Steve says. "As you can see, it's some sort of glowing rock. It's somewhat rare, about twice as common as diamond, but it seems to only be found near humid ravines."

The Book's voice surfaces. "I cannot sense any magic coming from the rock Steve is claiming to hold, assuming it is a rock at all. It is possible the object could be mundane, Ender, or some other form of substance unknown to our world."

"But it can be stretched a lot farther if it's ground into a powder and brewed into potions," Steve continues.

"Of course…" the Book says.

I hear a door open behind me.

"Are you spying on someone or something?" a male voice says. "I am pretty sure that's illegal."

Frustration and fear flashes in my mind. I turn around to face the man. He's an old man of below-average height and rather heavily dressed, perhaps to compensate for his sensitivity to the cold. A sword hangs from his hip by a rope.

"Or, at least, it would have been illegal back in the society that I was once a part of…" The man's eyes widen as he realizes what sort of man he's talking to. Maybe he saw the look of violent anger in my face. He wants to take his words back. Of course, he knows it's too late.

I sprint toward him. He stumbles walking backward but doesn't get very far. I cover his mouth before he cries out. It only takes half a suggested thought for a dimensional rift to envelope us, rip us from the walls of the inn hallway, and plant us at the edge of a wheat field next to a farmhouse.

You could have waited ten minutes! Maybe twenty! Twenty more minutes in your bedroom and I would have been gone! But you had to be there, didn't you? You had to barge in at that one critical moment and jeopardize my efforts to clean up this whole mess!

I wish I didn't have to kill this man. But I have no choice. I feel my hand rise and aim at the man's head. I let that horrible heat flow through me, and the man's head disintegrates in a cloud of blood and violet flame. Before his body can fall to the ground, I feel myself pulled away from the farmhouse, to the edge of the village.

I feel frustrated as I imagine how many words Steve probably said in the time I've already been gone. But letting the man live and spread rumors of my eavesdropping could have been worse. I suppose the Book teleported me to the edge of town because the sound of another teleportation would have made me even more suspicious.

I sigh. I guess running wouldn't hurt.

I run back to the inn, the rain wetting my face and making me squint. I almost slip on the mud-slicked bricks on one of the inner town roads, and have to slow down a bit.

Finally, I make it back to the front door of the inn. I stand still for a moment.

I just killed someone.

I push through the dread. I open the inn door, walk up the stairs, and stand in front of the door where Steve and the others are. I try to listen through the door again.

"Do not lean against the door," the Book orders.

I lean back away from the door and see with shock that my armor has left spots of blood on the surface of the door.

"The void will remove the paint, but there will be no blood left behind."

I implement the Book's suggestion, letting small bits of silver light embed into the surface of the door where the blood has touched it, until it burns those parts away into purple smoke. I try to burn the blood off my armor, then realize that won't work as the fire bends away and turns purple. I suppose the Book would have told me to do it if it were possible. I feel a bit of heat from my use of the void linger in my arm.

The Book observes with satisfaction. "Good. You can use the former guest's bedroom as a quick escape when they leave. Warnado's ability to sense magic is not yet strong enough to detect you."

"Former guest?" That's quite a euphemistic way of describing someone who we literally just murdered.

I lean my ear against the door again, conservatively only letting my head rest upon it this time.

"The hard part, aside from being there at the right time, is getting close enough to the Dreamweaver to use it. You can't exactly activate it at a distance," Warnado's oddly inflected voice muses.

"Fair point," Jennifer responds. "In other circumstances, Steve and I could make an automatic trap, but we don't have a lot of space to work with, and we need to be subtle."

I sense the Book observing eagerly. "The trap seems like the centerpiece of their plan. We need to listen closely. The material they mentioned must play a role. The fact we could not sense the material could mean it is the basis for an advanced invisibility potion, but given that they are concerned about being detected, that is highly unlikely. A mundane material is unlikely to be a threat. Which just leaves ender, or something unknown. Assuming ender, it is likely the material prevents teleportation. In that case, they likely intend to use it in splash potion form. That would explain why they need to use it at close range. We need to prepare for that possibility."

"I'm getting a few ideas," Warnado says. "Shadow has been teaching me how to better control my magic. I'm still wrapping my head around a lot of it, but I think I could create a spell that would buy us the time we need. I just need to practice it."

"That sounds promising," Jennifer says. "Any idea what kind of spell it would be?"

"I think…. some combination of stealth and disorientation," Warnado says. "I'm not sure if I will be able to concentrate on the spell and throw the splash potion at the same time, so someone else might have to do that part. And we definitely need a backup plan."

Huh. So it _is_ a splash potion...

"Backup plan? Strategic collaboration between multiple individuals? That sounds exactly within my purview," Kay remarks with enthusiasm. "Warnado can formulate a spell and give us a risk factor come the end of the day. Meanwhile, the rest of us can work on a few ideas for how to deploy the potion. Maybe survey our surroundings. Sounds like a good foundation."

"I agree," Steve says. "Let's reconvene with Warnado in the early afternoon, to check on his progress and tweak our plan as needed."

"I guess there's no time to waste," Warnado says. "I'll go get started magicking pronto. Wish me luck. Hopefully I won't step on a lego."

I contemplate for a moment what a 'lego' is, but then the necessities of the moment get the best of me, and I quickly tiptoe into the empty inn room whose now dead occupant I choose not to think about.

A door opens, a pair of footsteps creaks the inn floor. I stand still for a bit with patience, and soon after I hear the footsteps and voices of the other three conspirators. Once their voices fade, I slowly step out into the hall, and contemplate what to do next.


End file.
